The Quiet Season
by Luminous Lu
Summary: After Kate and Sawyer start a new life down south, some figures of the past come back to haunt them. Sequel to Of Love and Shadow, Skate AU.
1. Chapter 1

Hello, people! Yes, it's true. I'm back. Find your hiding places because Lu's back with another story! Okay, I'll stop. :D

This is the first chapter of The Quiet Season, which is the sequel to Of Love and Shadow, also published here. It's not mandatory that you read the prequel, but you'll probably miss out on some details if you don't.

This is sort of a small chapter, but I wanted to set the tone for the story, and give a few leads of what's to come. I really hope you enjoy it, and that this story is able to keep a public as faithful and fantastic as the prequel had!

Thank you so much for taking time to read this!

**The Quiet Season**

**Chapter One**

She opened the door slowly, as the first morning light hit the stairs. Leaving the keys on the counter, she walked back to the entrance to make sure it wouldn't open, and turned on the lights. There wasn't much light needed at that time, and soon it would be completely unnecessary. The day was about to start, and she knew just how much she'd have to do once the clients started to arrive; she had a few people helping her out, but it never seemed to be enough. The Pearl seemed to be the most popular coffee shop in town, placed in the center of the small community, not too far away from the ocean but safely placed between two rows of houses.

Kate turned her head to the door as it opened, ringing a small bell. A young woman walked in, getting rid of her long scarf as she took the first steps into the balcony. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, and was dressed in a trendy, girly way. Her hair was light brown, curling around her face and shoulders, slightly rebellious. Her face was straight, hard, her features slightly latin. She reminded Kate of Ana Lucia, strangely. Of a much nicer, and less bullying Ana Lucia.

"Hey Nikki." She said as she walked in, eliciting a small smile from the woman's face.

"Hey Kate." Nikki placed her purse and coat behind the counter and moved to help Kate with the tables and chairs. Once they were set, Kate moved to her place behind the counter, while Nikki started to make the coffee. She placed the cakes Kate had baked the night before in the counter, so the costumers could see them.

It was a success. Ever since Kate had arrived with Sawyer and Ella at that little town close to the ocean, she had wanted to open her own business; grant her own money, have an actual occupation. Ella was growing, and soon she would have to let go of her little girl, let her live her own life, so she would have nothing to do all day. Money wasn't the biggest issue: she got a big check from Christian every month, from Jack's money. But she still wanted to think she could be on her own.

Kate had opened the Pearl a year after they had arrived. It was a success ever since, not only because it was located near the docks, and the fishermen seemed to appreciate her coffee, but also because it was a very nice place to hang out.

The Pearl wasn't very big, or spacy. All made out of hardwood, including the counter and the fifty's styled chairs and tables, it was more comfortable than monumental. The counter was located near the entrance, with a row of stools in front of it. The fishermen and the rough crowd, as Kate called them, usually sat at the counter, while the women and younger people sat at the tables. The Pearl had sort of a mystical significance as well, because it had been the fishermen's club before Kate had arrived. She had thought about them when she started her project, and while she was building the space, they had helped her in everything they could.

Kate looked around for a second, allowing the moment to sink in. The thin light of dawn was invading the room, passing through the dusty glasses that she liked to keep dirty, because it helped filter the light. It was beautiful. Her place was beautiful, comfortable, and that was everything she had wanted it to be. And Kate was no more than proud to see her work, to have an actual occupation.

"Hello, girls!" a cheerful voice dragged Kate out of her thoughts, and made her turn her face to the door once again. A tiny, rotund lady was walking in, a small hat placed on her carefully curled hair. She shrugged off her green coat and placed it behind the counter, trotting happily in Kate's direction.

"'Morning, Martha." Kate smiled as the 50-year-old walked past her into the counter. She was carrying a shopping cart, filled with vegetables, meat, and most of the food they needed for the day.

"Hey Martha." Nikki said, joyfully. Martha pat her hair on her way to the kitchen, and closed the door behind her. "Hey there, Ladybug."

Kate smiled as she saw the third person walking into the Pearl. She watched as the small red coat approached, riding the blue bicycle she carried everywhere. Her hair was moving with the wind, and her school bag was hanging from her back. Kate watched as the girl tied the bicycle to the tree just in front of the coffee shop, and joyfully trotted into the bar, in a small impersonation of Martha.

Ella was ten years old now, looking more and more like Kate every day. Her green eyes were soft and caring, and her hair was wavy like her mother's. Her nose and cheeks were covered with freckles, adorably placed, like constellations playing on her face.

Her personality, however, seemed to come from the only person in her family that she wasn't tied to by blood: Sawyer. Slightly addicted to books, Ella's sense of humor was now ironic and slightly annoying, but still adorable. She was right about nearly everything, and she knew it. And Sawyer seemed to be the person she got along with better, except for her mother, who was still the figure she was more attached to. But between Sawyer and Ella was a sense of empathy, of mutual understanding that neither of them seemed to find anywhere else. It was almost like Sawyer was her real father, not Jack.

Ella loved the Pearl, and had been there since day one, sitting happily on a tall stool just beside the counter and talking to the costumers. The fishermen loved her, she was their little mascot, protected by them. She was smart and sassy, not girly at all; she wasn't afraid of the ocean and loved to go away with them, for a couple of days. Kate wasn't very happy whenever she was away, so she only allowed her once or twice a year.

"Hi mom!" she kissed Kate's cheek loudly and put her arms around her mother's neck, clinging to her. Kate pulled the girl up to her lap and kissed her messy hair.

"Hey bug. 'D you eat anything at home?" the girl shook her hair and sat up on her stool. She smiled at Nikki, who was just getting out of the kitchen, and the young woman smiled back, leaning to kiss Ella's hair.

"Hey gorgeous." She smiled and watched as Kate got Ella's breakfast ready. The girl took a book out of her school bag and opened it on her lap, starting to read it, while taking small sips from the mug of milk her mother had just placed in front of her. Ella ate her meal while Kate and Nikki walked around, getting everything ready for the costumers. Martha was in the kitchen, preparing a giant pot of coffee, that would suit the morning crowd.

When everything was ready, Kate moved to the door and put out the 'open' label. She came back to her place and waited patiently for the costumers to arrive.

It didn't take long for that to happen. Just a couple of minutes after Kate turned her back on the door, two men came in, looking tired. One of them was very tall, with wide shoulders and the tattoo of an anchor on his forearm. The rudeness of his aspect was contradicted by his blue eyes, that possessed a glimpse of tenderness and amusement.

The other man was shorter than his friend, but slightly chubbier. His hair was long, caught in a small pony tail behind his neck, and he had a three day old stubble that gave him a frightening look. That look, however, was erased in the moment he saw Ella and that she threw her tongue out for him.

"'Morning Jim." Kate greeted the taller man, pouring some coffee into a mug right in front of him. As the man sat in the stools right in front of Ella, Kate placed another mug near the shorter guy. "Blake. How are you doing?"

"Good, good, Kate. Good fishing today." John Blake's answer made Kate smile, and Ella lifted her eyes from the book in a provocative yet funny way. "Whatcha readin', Midget?" he looked at the cover of Ella's book and smiled. "Nora Roberts? Who the hell is that?"

"She's a famous author, Blakeley." The use of Ella's annoying nickname for Blake made him grin.

"Midget, how many times do I have to tell ya not to call me Blakeley? It don't help much with the female crowd, you see?" he said in a slightly confessional tone, leaning in towards the girl. Ella raised her eyes from the book once more, with a sly smile on her face.

"I thought you were already married, Blakeley."

"Ah, let's not talk about sad stuff, bug." He made a shrugging movement that made Ella laugh. "Not this early in the morning anyway."

Jim approached the two of them, coming straight from the jukebox. No matter how early it was in the morning, he loved the jukebox Kate had placed in the corner of the room. He charged it with a few coins and chose the songs he wanted. Right now, he'd set the player for Patsy Cline, and as the sound of '_I Fall to Pieces_' filled the space, he sat on his stool and took a sip of coffee.

"So, bug, whatcha readin'?" Ella rolled her eyes at the repeated question and pretended to smash her head against the counter. "What?" Jim asked, confused.

Blake ignored Jim's question and took the book out of Ella's hands, reading the page she was on. Ella tried to get it back, but he took the book away from her, to a distance she couldn't reach. Admitting her defeat, the girl suck her head between her arms, sighing deeply.

Kate arrived at their side just when Blake's reaction to what he was reading started to show. His eyes widened and his cheeks reddened, just as Ella hopped down from the stool and tried to get away. Her mother's hand caught her arm, though.

Blake tried to talk, but the words jut wouldn't come out of his mouth. "I... She..." Jim took the book from his hand and started to read, letting out a big laugh.

"Holy crap!" he turned to Ella, whose face was as red as a tomato. "How old are ya again?"

Realizing what was happening, Kate moved her hand to the book and saw the cover, smiling. Nikki approached the scene and took the book in her hands, nearly spitting out the coffee in her mouth when she read the first few lines. Swallowing hard, she made a giant effort not to laugh. "Whoa. This is hardcore."

"Mom, I didn't have anything else to read! And that's only one scene!" Kate tried not to laugh, while she got Ella her coat.

"Well, the next time you don't have anything else to read, instead of going to mommy's books, go to Sawyer's, okay?" Ella had a look of disbelief in her face, look that was followed by the other three people present.

"You sure you want the girl to go to _Sawyer_'s books?" Jim asked "I mean, _that_'s bad enough..."

"Okay, we'll go to the library today!" Kate yelled, nearly shoving the girl out of the counter, while Ella shared an complicity grin with Blake.

"Yes! Love you, 'Ma!" Ella laughed as she ran out of the store, and Kate sighed deeply. Blake's hand moved towards the book, but she caught it on time.

"Don't even think about it, Blake." She grunted, taking the book into the kitchen to hide it in a safe place.

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"There's a storm comin' on. Big one." Bridget Blake's voice was dull and yet restless, when she spoke. Her hand rested on top of the gossip magazine she was reading, as if she wasn't really paying attention to the news or the pictures, just using it a pretext to do some thinking. "Told John not to go out there today, but he wants to do it anyway. Stubborn man, I tell ya."

Kate looked through the glass out to the sky. It was dark, heavy, scary. When she was a little girl, Kate adored storms. She loved to be out in the open when the rain started to fall, feel the pressure of the drops on her skin, feel herself tuned with nature. Her impulsive and fierce personality would often find a match on the rough weather conditions, to the point that she thought she had some sort of power over the clouds to make them act in accord with her swingy moods.

Since she had moved down to the village, though, Kate's vision of the storms had changed dramatically. She got restless, nervous, irritated. She dreaded the storms, and even though she didn't show her feelings about them, she felt like a nerve wreck every time they threatened the place.

"Is your man still out in the open?" Bridget asked. Kate looked away.

"He was supposed to be coming home these days. I don't know. I hate it when he doesn't go with Blake and Jim." Kate shrugged and cleaned to counter, in a sad attempt to hide her concern. Her mask came down as soon as Bridget's hand found hers on top of the counter.

"You'll never get used to this, will ya?" she smiled sadly. "To being the wife of a sea man." Kate leaned against the counter, smiling sadly as the other woman spoke. "Having to wait for him to come. Having to pray for the ocean not to take him."

"I guess I won't. I'm a land gal, I guess." Kate sighed "So is he." She muttered under her breath. Bridget let out a laugh.

"What? He's a land gal too?" Kate laughed and threw the rag she was using at her friend, who threw it back at her.

Bridget had lived in the village all her life, had grown up there. She was used to the fate of the ocean, as they called it. She had always known she was the daughter of a sea man, bound to marry a sea man, to give birth to other sea men. She knew the ocean was her fate and didn't fight it. Kate admired her ability to be calm about it, to live her life and not fight it. She actually wished she could be like that; calm, resigned.

Kate wasn't like that. She feared for Sawyer's life everyday he wasn't by her side. He usually went away for five or six days at a time, coming home for another four, going away again. That system drove Kate insane, but strangely enough, he liked it. Kate's nerves, however, were giving out. She couldn't bring herself to sleep whenever there was the threat of a storm, she'd get restless and moody. She didn't resign to the destiny of a sea man, which was to die in the job, sooner or later. And what unnerved her most was that Sawyer was more than willing to accept that fate. He even seemed to like it, like the familiarity of it. Like the sense of belonging it gave him.

Throughout the previous five years, Sawyer and Kate had been together, living together. And surprisingly, it hadn't put out the flame they'd had since the first day. They had gotten to know each other deeply, opened out to each other in a way they hadn't opened up to anyone else. Sawyer knew about Kate's past, all of it. Wayne, Tom. Her daddy issues, her inability to give herself away too often. How she was a closed shell that only he had the power to open.

Sawyer treasured those moments, when she'd let her guard down and instead of being the perfect, hard working Kate, she'd allow herself to break down and either cry or laugh in his arms. In the few times it had happened, he was about to leave for a while, and she was afraid to lose him. He had realized pretty soon that fear was what caused her to let go, to break down. And more than just fear, it was the fear to lose him.

He stuck his hand inside the inner pocket of his coat and dragged out a small picture, worn out and slightly tore, from all the time inside the coat. It was a picture of him and the two girls of his life, as he called them. Kate and Sawyer were sitting at the stairs of the Pearl, with a six-year-old Ella sitting between them. The picture had been taken by Nikki, in the day they had opened the coffee shop. He hoped he'd arrive at that place in that same night, just in time to drag Kate to bed with him and make forget about the days out in the ocean.

A drop fell on the picture at the same time as a voice called out for him. "Sawyer! Come down here, we need help!"

"Yeah, be right there!" he answered, as he looked up to the sky and tucked the picture back in its place. The clouds were low and dark. That wouldn't be nice or calm. At all.

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It was 8pm and Kate was still at the Pearl, refusing to go out. Ella was nearly falling asleep in the counter, after having a meal Kate had prepared for dinner. Nikki and Martha were still with her, even though she'd sent them away a long time ago. She wanted to be alone, wanted to be left by herself.

The storm had come in big shape, forcing most of the fishermen to drag their boats out of the water. It was one of the biggest storms that place had seen in a bunch of years. And Sawyer still hadn't returned from the sea.

"Kate, you gotta go home. Look at Ella, she's falling asleep right here." Kate snapped out of the trance she was in, watching the rain fall through the window. Glancing at the clock and at Ella, Kate nodded.

"I can't leave." She said in a low, defeated tone, as she sat down in a stool. Nikki got up and picked her own coat up, followed by Ella's.

"Okay. Kate, mind if Ella spends the night with me? I hate to be alone on storm nights, and this way she'll go with me now." Kate looked at Nikki and smiled.

"You'd be a sweet."

"Nah, you're the one doing me a favour." Nikki woke Ella up and dragged the little girl up to the door, where her mom waited for her.

"Ella, babe, you'll go with Nikki to her place, okay? Sleep there, 'cause mom can't go home yet." Ella nodded.

"Nikki, will you make me pancakes?" Nikki laughed.

"Well of course. C'mon girl, it's late." The two girls covered their heads and ran to Nikki's car, parked just down the road. Kate watched as the car took it's way down the road and disappeared into the rain. She jumped a little when she felt a hand on her back.

"You can't be like that every time there's a storm, Kate." Martha's soft voice played a little in her ears, until she gathered the courage to turn around and face the lady standing in front of her. "It'll break your little heart."

"I can't... I need to wait for him." she muttered, looking away from Martha.

"You gotta have faith, Katie! You can't think it's all over every time he goes out with the other boys!"

Kate's eyes were dragged outside, when she saw a couple of figures running out in the direction of the pier. Kate saw Bridget Blake running amongst them, and her heart jumped a bit more as she saw more women and older men running down the street.

Martha saw it too, and her eyers were immediately diverted to the door. Kate's face was pale, deathly pale, and she knew she could do nothing to stop her from going to the pier.

"I gotta go there" Kate's words came out as she ran to the door, picking up her coat in the way and ignoring the fact that she was wearing a skirt that would probably crawl up her thighs.

As soon as Kate saw herself in the middle of the street, the rain pouring on her body with a strength she hadn't felt ever since she was a young girl, she took a deep breath. She ran down the street to the docks and saw three men and two women in the rain, looking out the ocean as the three men got a boat ready. She ran to Bridget, who had tears in her eyes.

"I told him not to go, I asked him to!" She cried as she dropped her arms around Kate, who held her close. Bridget should be about thirty-five years old, a strong and womanly body that held the work of generations out in the sea. Kate thought she was beautiful, even though she didn't exactly fill the usual patters of female beauty. And somehow, in crying in the rain, she suddenly saw her as more beautiful than ever.

Kate felt a wave of relief as she saw Bridget crying, that she felt ashamed for right that second. If Blake's boat had sunk, it meant that the fuzz wasn't about Sawyer's. But when she looked around the water, she saw no sign of The Prince, the boat Sawyer was in that day. Kate looked out at one of them men in the pier while Bridget sobbed into her shoulder.

"Pete! What happened?" The old men approached the two women, dragging his leg slightly.

"The Flying Shark sunk. We don't know anything about them yet, we just got their coordinates, and the crew from the Prince went down there..." Kate's head snapped. Sawyer had gone out to the ocean again to save the other men.

"What? The Prince was here?" Kate's voice was low and ragged, and she didn't move while Bridget shed her tears and looked out at the ocean, taking a step away from them.

"Yeah, they were just arriving when the alarm came. Sawyer and the guys went back to see if they could get them." Kate felt her legs go numb and sat down in the bench beside her, grabbing the wood fiercely. "They've gone a while ago."

---------------

It had been two hours since the alarm had sounded, and Kate was still at the pier. She had refused to move away, even when the other women from the village had come to take Bridget away from that place. She had resisted, alone, against the rain and the wind, and the lightning bolts that hit the water just in front of her. She had been there alone, freezing to death, her eyes stuck in the bay, hoping to see a familiar light.

Until she did. She looked away and saw a light approaching, getting nearer every second. It was a motor boat, a fast one. Kate didn't move, she couldn't bring herself to do such an effort. She had to see it, she had to see him coming near, had to see the boat dock and Sawyer come out of it, alive.

The boat docked and a head came out of the small cabin. It was Keith Donovan, one of Sawyer's mates. "Kate, you gotta go get help! Blake and John are hurt." Kate's joy was visible. They were alive. John and Blake were alive.

"How bad is it?" she asked, before she started to move.

"John's out. Blake's awake, though." KD, as they called him, smiled a little. "Awake and cursing like a real sea man, so go."

"Okay, I'm goin'!" Kate said. She started to move, and then came back. "KD! What about Sawyer?"

"Fine as water, Kate!" Kate laughed out loud and nodded. She started to run towards Bridget's house to give her the good news.

-----------------------

Bridget had come to get her husband with the local doctor, and they had taken John to the hospital. It had been fast, while Kate was helping Bridget out of her place. They walked together down to the pier again, and Kate couldn't help the tears when she saw her friend run to her husband, who was cursing like crazy. Kate smiled, amused, when she saw Bridget nearly slapping her husband and then falling into his arms, sobbing happily.

It was only when she was distracted by the sound of everyone else's voice that Kate saw the man coming out of the boat. His long hair clinging to his face, his shirt wet and his usual expression of mocking contempt. Kate didn't even need to think. She started to run between the people standing in the pier and threw herself to his arms, hiding her face in his neck. She wasn't surprised when his arms held her fiercely against himself, nearly smothering her. She didn't care, either. She was back in his arms, and it was all that mattered.

"You're all wet, Freckles." He said with a naughty smile, pulling her crying face away from his and kissing her upper cheek softly.

"You're home." She said, between sobs. He looked at her eyes and saw his own fear mirrored in her, the fear that they wouldn't always be together, that they wouldn't always be coming back to each other's arms.

"I'm home, baby." He said, in a low voice. Placing his hands on her hips, he kissed her lips slowly and pulled her to her car with him. "Let's go home."


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey guys! Here's the second chapter of this fiction! It's not as big as the first, anyway, but i've realized that the first few chapters of this story will probably be smaller than the last few of OLAS. I can promise you that, as soon as the action picks up, the chapters will be longer, and more action-packed. _

_I just wanted to thank you all for your lovely comments! I love each and every single one of you for taking the time to review. It really means a lot to me, and it's what keeps me going, so the more you do it, the more I'll update:) _

_Once again, thank you. _

_-Lu_

**Chapter Two**

Torso against torso, his hands flying up to meet her shoulder blades. Kate let out a small cry in anticipation of what his hands would do, of how he'd drive her crazy. Of how he'd make her feel safe and quiet all over again.

They had made it home in a hurry, speeding through the tiny ways, making sure the car didn't get stuck in the mud. The rain kept pouring down with the strength of a giant, but it's tone was soothing now. In their minds, the rain was now a cleansing mist, the only way they had to let go of the anxiety of the previous hours, of the fear, the adrenaline and the panic. Sawyer was perfectly aware of Kate's feelings when he was on a boat, making him feel guilty for putting her through such a situation. Kate felt guilty too, for making him regret his decision to take an honest job, to get out of that life he'd been living before; decision she had strongly influenced, since it had been her request that he'd stop conning women. Sleeping with them. Making her jealous.

They ran from the car to the porch, and Sawyer's hands found Kate's waist in the dark, even before she was able to reach the door. His hands pulled her into him, kissing her neck and shoulders, ignoring the wet fabric that was clinging to her back, the hair gluing to her face, her freckles nearly gone in that maze of pure white skin and dark curls. His head bent down to kiss her upper cheek while her arms came up lazily, slowly finding a way underneath his shirt and touching his stomach with a slow, tantalizing intention. She didn't seem to be in the same hurry as he was, or at least she wasn't showing it.

Sawyer smiled slightly when this realization came to mind, pressing her against the wall just beside the door and breathing against her neck. Hell, if it was going to be a challenge, then he was going to make it good.

Kate pulled Sawyer's head away from her neck and stared at his eyes with a mischievous expression. She knew exactly how to make him play, how to drive him crazy with competitiveness and desire. She was good at it, very good. And somehow, she usually won at the end.

His lips crushed against her with a force that took most of Kate's balance away. In a split second, she found herself being held up by his arms alone, her legs limp under her torso. She wasn't able to form a consistent thought, she wasn't able to think clearly or engage in an action that wasn't related to the one Sawyer was slowly dragging her to. She able, though, to notice that she wasn't feeling exactly comfortable against the cold cement of the wall behind her back, so she made a small sign for Sawyer to take them to the swing that was standing in the side porch, properly hidden from the people who might pass by.

Sawyer caught the tip and picked Kate up from the floor, kissing her while he walked towards the swinging bench and sitting on it with her straddling him.

His shirt was the first piece of clothing to fly away from them, quickly followed by Kate's shirt, and a couple of other items they were wearing. Soon enough, they were both naked, sharing flesh and bone, sweat and tears.

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Kate rested her forehead against Sawyer's neck, panting, forcing her breathing to ease. She wasn't having much success in that task, especially considering that the loud intakes of air were now replaced by small, dry sobs. Kate didn't want to cry, she didn't want the tears to fall out of her eyes, she couldn't allow them. She couldn't ruin that moment. The bliss they had after the lovemaking, the easy silence they slipped into couldn't be disturbed by crying and fear. Not that one, at least. Not when he had just came home, safe and sound.

But somehow, she couldn't stop them. The tears she had wanted to conceal were now running down her cheek to Sawyer's neck, trailing a path of deep anguish and anxiety, forcing them to analyse what had been happening up to that day.

Sawyer found himself at a loss of words when he felt Kate's first tear on his skin. There was something strangely erotic about the feeling of having her tear running down his naked chest, and he was kind of embarrassed of that thought. However, the sensation of holding a sobbing Freckles in his arms overcame the guilt and the dirty thoughts. As he felt her give into him, let herself go into his arms, allowing herself to enjoy the tears she was crying, he felt a wave of love for her that seemed to consume him. Picking his shirt up from his side of the bench, he covered her naked back with it and pulled her even closer to him, smoothing her back softly.

He gave her the moment she needed and Kate was grateful for it. Wasn't that what they did best, after all? Read each other, allow each other to cope in their own way? It was sort of a gift between them; Kate knew exactly when Sawyer needed to be alone, while Sawyer understood Kate's need to appear good and trusting, to put up a part that wasn't the one of the strong-willed and stubborn woman he knew. In a few words, they understood each other.

"Oh God." Sawyer nearly screamed of happiness when he heard Kate's voice in the darkness. Even though it was a low, dreadful moan, he was happy to hear her speak. He was scared that she'd just go back to her shell and not say a word about the crying, but apparently, she was in the mood to talk.

Kate didn't move her head. Her forehead was still resting against the side of Sawyer's neck and her arms were still wrapped around his torso. Sawyer didn't move either. He would not dare to move unless she did. "Oh God." The words came out of her mouth again, and Sawyer was unable to suppress a grin.

"I think He heard ya the first time, Freckles." He heard a small giggle, almost too small to notice, and then silence again. Stillness again.

"Sometimes I think I can't take it. Let you go away." Kate sighed and Sawyer felt his throat constrict with emotion. Maybe he liked her more with no words. With no danger of showing his emotion. "Wait for you to come home in one piece."

"You wanted me to do it." He feared his voice would be too low for her to hear, but like everything he said or kept to himself, she could read it.

"I know." Her hand came up and grazed his chest slowly, stopping over his thorax. "I know. And I don't want you to give it up." She took a deep breath, as if gaining strength to form a sentence. "I just wish everybody here wasn't so... I wish people didn't just assume men die young and out in the ocean."

"It's the way they think, Freckles." His hand went up to her hair, his fingers getting lost in it. "You ain't gonna change that."

Kate sighed once more and brought a hand up to meet Sawyer's in her hair. In a thoughtless move, she brought his hand down to her face, kissing his palm softly. It was a move of habit, something she did with such absence of thought that she barely noticed it. He did notice it, though. Even though he didn't admit it, these tender gestures made him smile, and were not that regular. For Kate, it was like she had been doing it all her life; for Sawyer, every time she did it was like the first, surprising and endearing.

She shifted again in his lap and pulled away from him, standing with her face in front of his face. They were mere inches apart, but the conversation didn't bring them any kind of sexual thoughts.

"I feel like they're all giving up." Kate said, her eyes deep into his "Accepting their fate."

"Maybe that's what we oughta do." Sawyer's reply was low again, and soft. Kate closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them up again, they were wet once more.

"No. That's giving up." She brought her hands from his chest to the sides of his face "Promise me... Promise me you won't give up, Sawyer. Promise me you won't accept it."

As the tears invaded Kate once more, Sawyer pulled her into him like he'd pull a child, for love and comfort. "What'cha talkin' about, girl? I ain't goin' nowhere." Kate kept talking, not listening to his words.

"Please. Promise me you'll come back to us, to me and Ella."

"I promise." His voice was caught in his throat once again, and Kate looked at his eyes with a serious expression. And then, as he stared at her in surprise, she started to laugh through the tears, as if she was embarrassed.

"Damn PMS." She whispered, as her hand travelled down his chest. Sawyer gasped as her hand touched his sensitive spot. He smiled with her and brought her lips down to his, making the porch swing start to move once again.

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Sawyer heard the noise of tingling metal near him, the sound of a clay cup being placed in it's plate. His eyes were still closed, on of his arms placed softly on his stomach. He felt as if he had been dragged from a dream into another. Of course, his dreams were always much dirtier than reality, but that was a given.

His eyes opened, partially blinded by the sunlight that had invaded the room. Kate was sitting beside him, with the tray where their breakfast was laying placed in front of them. She was quietly reading the paper of the day, not noticing he was awake, wearing nothing but one of his shirts. Sawyer decided to take advantage of this and placed his hand on her naked thigh, causing her to jump slightly from the scare.

"You scared me!" she said, laughing, while he raised himself on his elbows and kissed her shoulder tenderly.

"It was kind of the point, Freckles." Kate smiled and picked one cup from the tray.

"Coffee?" she gave him the cup and he took a sip, smiling in appreciation.

They were silent for a while, taking the moment in. The light was entering the room through the open windows, and filling it with a warmth that they took some time to enjoy. The white cover of the bed was pulled back, leaving the two of them over a bundle of sheets, still disorganized from the night before.

They didn't have that many moments like this, moments of pure peace, when they would just sit and enjoy themselves. Ella was usually up early on Saturday mornings, and had the habit of waking Kate as soon as she got out of the bed so that her mother would keep her company. When Sawyer was at home, he usually took Ella to the pier to watch the fish coming in. That morning, though, Ella was still with Nikki, and the coffee shop didn't have to be opened before ten, so they could just rest.

"So, freckles, about that hissy fit of yours last night..." he smiled as he spoke, wanting to sound as casual as possible. He felt her tense up and look down at the coffee cup, not really wanting to face him.

"What about it?" she cleared her throat, as if preparing to make a statement.

"How's it gonna be the next time I go? I have to leave on Wednesday." He said slowly. Kate looked up for a moment and then placed her cup on the tray. She took a deep breath before turning to Sawyer and lowering herself to his level, smiling softly.

"You're gonna go. And I'll be here, waiting for you. I'll be on the dock the moment you come in, like always." Kate smiled softly and placed her lips on Sawyers, allowing her tongue to dart out and try his lips. When he was getting into it, though, she pulled back with a smile and rested her chin on his chest.

Sawyer brought his hands up to her back and softly caressed the skin there, drawing small circles with his index finger. Kate sighed and played with his hair, her hand behind his neck.

"We should go take a shower." She whispered. "On three. One." She counted slowly. "Two." Her voice resounded inside his chest, and he could feel it reverberate through him.

"Three." He said, but none of them moved.

------------------

Kate had opened the Pearl an hour ago when Nikki walked in, accompanied by a smiling Ella. The girl looked happy and giddy, as she always looked when she was with her mother's employee and friend. Nikki and Ella seemed to have a genuine friendship, even though they had almost twenty years separating them. The girl loved to sleep at Nikki's chalet near the sand, and to get out early in the morning to feel the ocean on her feet.

"Hey mom!" Ella walked in trotting cheerfully and hugged her mother tightly. Kate kissed her hair and placed her hands on the girl's face.

"Did you behave at Nikki's?" she asked. Nikki was still at the door, smiling softly at the tender scene she was witnessing.

"Yeah! We made pancakes!" Ella said, excitedly. Nikki confirmed it with a nod, still smiling. Kate lifted her daughter's chin and smiled as the girl put her tongue out for her.

"Well, Miss, I have a little surprise for you." Ella's eyes were shining with expectation.

"A surprise? What is it?" she asked, while Nikki rolled her eyes.

"She's not gonna tell you, bug. If it's a surprise, you gotta find out for herself." Kate agreed with Nikki and indicated the door to the kitchen, for Ella to walk to. Gladly, though, she didn't need to. The door opened up and Sawyer's figure came out of it, staring at the little girl with a dimpled smile.

Ella let out a small scream as she saw him coming out of the kitchen, and she brought her hands to cover her mouth, dramatically. That girl was always the drama queen, Kate thought. "John Smith!"

Sawyer opened up his arms for the girl and she ran to him, throwing herself at them. He picked her up from the floor and held her tight, while Kate, Nikki and the crowd at the coffee shop watched them with endearing smiles.

Kate felt a lump in her throat when she saw the two of them together, keeping the tears in. She got emotional whenever she watched her daughter and her man, the chemistry they had, feeling slightly left out from their little bond, but feeling happy at the same time. She was glad they got along so well, and Sawyer's protectiveness of Ella was, at the very least, adorable; Kate felt so ecstatic to have them both in her life.

"Hey midget. What'cha been doin'?" he asked with his sultry accent, the words caught in his throat.

Ella didn't speak. When he put her in the floor again, she stood by his side fiercely as they approached Kate, who was making tea for them. Sawyer sat in the stool next to Ella, and Kate sat on the other side of the girl. Nikki smiled as she looked at the picture of a beautiful family.

A few minutes later, Jim walked into the Pearl, alone. He sat at the counter, greeting Sawyer and Kate, and softly messed up Ella's hair as a form of saying 'hello'.

"Where's Blakeley?" she asked softly. Jim looked at Sawyer and then at Ella, smiling at the little girl.

"Well, midget, he's kind of counting the stars of his ceiling." Ella looked puzzle, and Sawyer tried to suppress a laugh.

"Man, why don't you talk to her in actual words?" he laughed.

"Blake's got a broken leg, kid. He's on bed rest." He said with a smile. "Actually I'm on my way there. Bridget said he was cranky as hell, I might as well try to cheer him up."

Sawyer looked down at his stepdaughter. "Fancy a visit, shortcake? We could go and make a band. The Fishermen Three." Ella and Kate laughed, while he got up from the stool.

"I'll play the accordion." The girl said with a smile, hopping down from her stool as well. Kate placed her hand on Ella's hair and pulled her to herself, kissing the top of her head. Sawyer passed her by and smiled, his dimples showing off as he lowered his head to kiss Kate. The kiss lasted slightly longer than it was needed, leaving a panting Kate and a wide smile on his face.

"Don't mess up Bridget's house, you guys!" Kate warned, as the two men left the Pearl, taking Ella between them.

Sawyer and Jim walked down the street to the Blakes' house, with Ella trotting joyfully in front of them. The two men walked side by side, and Jim touched his hat slowly, seemingly trying to find a way to say something.

"Hey man, I wanted to tell ya..." his voice was uneasy, and Sawyer was almost sure of what he was about to say. "KD told me you were the one who wanted to go back and get me and Blake..." looking down at the floor, Jim seemed to be at a loss of words. Sawyer decided to do it for him.

"You're welcome, Jimbo." He said as he patted the man's back playfully. Jim seemed relieved by Sawyer's reply, and he let out a small laugh.

"That storm last night. It wasn't normal, you know?" he said, as he walked clumsily towards John and Bridget's little house. "I mean, it came out of nowhere. No one could have predicted it."

"Yeah" Sawyer said, vaguely. His eyes were now fixed on the ocean in front of him. "But I've seen my share of odd things down here."

"You have?" Jim seemed to be surprised, half laughing.

"You remember that circus that came here a couple'a years ago?" Sawyer was smiling. "Two headed woman, with _beards_ on both faces. I swear, ain't nothin' I had seen somewhere else."

Jim laughed at Sawyer's remark and entered their friend's garden after Ella. The girl was already at their doorstep, ringing the bell. Bridget Blake came to the door as they approached, and smiled when she saw them.

"Hey guys, good to see you!" She placed a kiss on Ella's forehead and waved at the guys. "Blake's inside, come on in. I was just making a pot of sweet tea." She stepped away from the door inviting them into the small house. Ella and Sawyer walked to the living room, and as Sawyer looked back, he saw a Bridget and Jim staring at each other, looking defeated. Sawyer was sure there was something there.

Blake was sitting on his couch, in front of the television. He had his left leg placed on a pillow, covered by a layer of plaster, and a beer in his hand. He lifted his eyes when he saw Sawyer and Ella, now followed by Jim, entering the room.

"Well, if it ain't the hero of the day!" he said, shaking Sawyer's hand. Sawyer looked slightly embarrassed, as Ella gushed and looked up at him.

"What did he do, Blakeley?" Blake shook Jim's hand and stared at Sawyer.

"What, he ain't tell you? He saved my ass last night! Thanks to your Papa, I'm here in one piece!" he looked at the plaster and shrugged, smiling. "Hell, I even got a bit more flesh, if ya know what I mean." He winked at the little girl, who sat by his side as Jim and Sawyer took the seats near the couch.

"Sweet tea, anyone?" Bridget asked, coming in with a tray full of glasses.

"Yes, please!" Ella said, getting up from the floor and taking a cup into her hands. Sawyer nudged her sweetly.

"What do ya say, midget?" Ella looked up at Bridget.

"Thank you, B." Bridget smiled.

"You're welcome, sweetheart." She turned to the men "You guys? No sweet tea?" Sawyer and Jim took a glass from the tray, thanking Bridget, who moved to the kitchen again.

Blake was still joyful and funny, even through the pain of the broken leg. Sawyer had found himself those two men, the first he could actually call 'friends'. They were dorky and strong, the kind of men he would have conned in another life, but that were now his pals, his buddies. The proof of that was Sawyer's insistency in going out to the ocean again, to save those two, the previous night. The other two people on his boat, KD and a guy named Frank, who was quieter than a goat, didn't want to, but Sawyer had threatened to go alone. Faced with the possibility of being called cowards by everyone in the village, the other two had caved and accompanied Sawyer in that dreadful rescue mission.

The men spoke for a while in the living room, while Ella laughed with them. Bridget came in a while later, placing Ella in her lap and talking to the girl. And so they spent their Saturday morning, chatting away the time.

------------------------

Kate and Nikki were at the Pearl, playing chess. It was noon, and the crowd seemed to have vanished from the place, so they were just passing time.

"So Kate," Nikki started to asked, pretending to be focused on the game. "What do you think of that Paulo guy?"

Kate pretended to absorbed by the game as well. "Who?"

"That guy who was here yesterday." Nikki said, casually. "Dark hair, stubble..."

"Oh, the brazilian guy?" Kate took her horse and moved it over one of Nikki's pawns.

"Yeah." Nikki said, her eyes lowering to the table, as she played distractedly. Kate moved her bishop over her friend's queen and smiled.

"Check mate!" she said, pinching Nikki's arm. "Pay attention to what you're doing, lady!" she looked at her friend and smiled, realizing where her mind was at the moment. "Oh my my, you were thinking about that Pablo guy!"

"It's Paulo!" Nikki replied, slightly annoyed. "And no. I don't think about strangers."

"Well, he came here every day since two weeks ago. And you know his name, so he's not so much of a stranger." Kate smiled and wrinkled her nose. She was enjoying this talk, this little moment with Nikki. It reminded her of Shannon, the person she missed the most from Boston.

The phone rang as they were setting up another game, and Nikki got up to take the call. Kate stood by the table, placing the chess pines in their due places, when Nikki called her into the counter.

"It's for someone named Austen, do you know anyone with that name? This guy has a really weird voice, too." Nikki shrugged as Kate went past her to get the phone. As she placed it near her ear and let out a joyful 'hello', her eyes grew serious and her face pale. She listened for a while and then put the phone down, staring at the window.

"So? What was it?" Kate smiled to Nikki, but it was so fake that came out as more of a grin.

"Nothing. He got the wrong number." Kate said, as she moved to the table, feeling the wood beneath her fingers and feeling like she was walking into a nightmare.


	3. Chapter 3

_Here's the new installment of this fiction! I hope you like it!_

_As I said in Lost forum, it will be a little hard for me to update in the next few weeks; You shouldn't expect more than two in a month, maybe. I'm gaduating in June, so I have tons of work to do right now. _

_Still, I will do my best to write as often as I can! And I can promise you that once I'm done with school, this fiction will have my full and undivided attention! _

_Oh, and the new guy in town? __**Ceci**__, this is for you, love!_

_Thank you for the reviews, everyone!_

**Chapter Three**

Kate and Nikki were still sitting at the table, with the kings, queens and pawns in front of them. They were fierce at the game, and even though Kate's sense of strategy was extremely accurate, Nikki was a good match. So after two games and still no costumers, they had decided to close up and wait for Sawyer and Ella to return from the Blakes' house, so they could go home.

Kate had blocked out the feeling of dread the phone call had given her. She wasn't able to deal with it, to let it sink and give it the value it really deserved. _Austen_. Her real name, which hadn't been said by anyone close to her in a while. Well, in truth, Ella used to talk about _Jane_ Austen, but it wasn't quite the same. It wasn't referring to her, Kate Austen, the supposedly dead murderer. Dead murderer. It sounded kind of funny in her head, but there was no other way to put it.

"Check mate!" Nikki's voice was joyful, as she made a little victory dance. Kate smiled and covered her face.

"Damn you." she muttered, in a joking manner. Nikki put out her tongue for Kate, as if she was five years old, and laughed as they both set the pieces back in their places.

"_Well_, I'll tell you what you said before: pay attention to the damn game!" Kate nodded and smiled.

"Well, since you're talking about that anyway... We didn't quite finish that conversation." Nikki blushed, which was a little bit odd, considering she was usually extremely confident and defiant. But somehow, with the whole Paulo talk, Kate had managed to make her cheeks redden. Kate thought that could be no less than interesting.

"Shut up." Nikki said, sheepishly.

"You're blushing, Niks." Kate lowered her eyes to the game table as she set her white pieces in their places. "Why do I have the feeling you guys haven't just been meeting here?"

"Because we haven't." She said honestly. Kate's chin dropped, and she made her best girl talk look, placing her chin in her palm and her elbow on the table. She even started to roll a strand of hair between her fingers, looking like a true school girl. Nikki laughed. "Well, I was at the beach one of these days, and we met." She tried to conceal a smile "He was surfing. He's a surfer."

"Well, if there's someone who's not gonna surf for a while, that's gotta be Blake. Poor guy can't even kick his own ass." Sawyer walked in, quickly followed by Ella, unnoticed to both women until they heard him talk. Kate smiled as she saw him swagger towards the table, his dimpled smile on his face. She felt warm and safe, and the thought of the phone call was nearly erased from her mind.

Sawyer took a chair and sat beside them at the table, as did Ella. They waited for Kate and Nikki to finish their game, which didn't take long because Kate couldn't think straight with Sawyer's hand crawling up her thigh every now and then. So as soon as they were over with the game, and after Nikki being declared winner of the day by Sawyer and Ella, the group started to close up the coffee shop and to get things ready to go home.

Kate's chest filled with dread one second time that day when she heard the phone ring. She was holding a cup in her hands, and she suddenly dropped it, breaking it on the wooden floor. Sawyer's head turned to see it, and his gaze crossed Kate's, leaving him with the impression that she was scared to death. He didn't like the feeling, and as he saw her terrified glare towards the phone, he ran to it and picked it up, putting an end to what seemed to be the longest moment in Kate's life.

"Jake, hey." As she heard the name of one of Sawyer's mates, Kate took a deep breath and lowered herself down in order to gather the pieces of the cup. Nikki got her a broom and they cleaned up the mess while Sawyer was still on the phone, so when he hung up, they were ready to leave.

Nikki and Ella got out of the Pearl first, and Kate got pulled back by Sawyer, who grabbed her arm.

"What's the matter with ya?" he asked, his face frowning in a concerned way. Kate looked away.

"Nothing. My hand shook a bit, that's all." She smiled at him, trying to conceal the scare she had just been through. Sawyer, however, wasn't buying it. He took a step closer to her, placing one hand in the small of her back as she leaned into his chest and allowed her forehead to rest there. His masculine scent, that mix of aftershave and cigarette smoke that used to drive her crazy in their first times in Boston, was still there. She could still feel it, and whenever she did, she felt like she was in those days, five years before.

"C'mon, Freckles. What'cha got on your mind?" he whispered in her ear, softly. Kate smiled against his chest and slowly raised her head, meeting his eyes.

"Nothing. Nothing at all." She said, kissing his cheek and walking out of the coffee shop. Sawyer took a second behind her and walked around suspiciously. He knew that woman as well as he knew himself, and he was sure of one thing: something had happened while he was in Blake's place. And he was going to find out what it was.

-----------------------

They had just eaten dinner, and Kate had allowed Ella to go outside and try to fish something out of the lake. What she didn't know was that a toxic discharge had caused an environmental disaster in the lake two years before that, killing nearly every form of life present in the water. Sawyer had a nearly sadistic fun, watching the girl try to fish something, even if it was a boot full of worms from the dark waters, with no success.

While she was outside, Kate was taking care of the dishes, while Sawyer sat at the table with a glass of whiskey in front of him. It was their little ritual; after dinner, Kate would clean up and Sawyer would join her in the kitchen, and they would talk about trivial matters, about what was yet to come in their lives and what they had achieved. During those kitchen talks, they had managed to cover such variate ground as Ella's choice of college, how little they missed they life they had led in Boston, and even the _that thing_ Kate could do with her back, that Sawyer loved so much. Some of the times, of course, the dishwashing led to less clean thoughts, and they had ended up having sex on the kitchen table countless times.

Kate was silently humming now, and Sawyer was staring at her with uncanny attention. It wasn't a look of desire, or a look of lust. It wasn't even a look of love, of passion; it was a look of curiosity, of unarmed and restless curiosity. Sawyer had been puzzled by her reaction to the phone call since they had come home, and it still wasn't fitting into his brain. There was something wrong with Kate, he could tell that by a hundred miles, but the uncertainty of the issue gave him a sense of dread that not even his unworrying mind could lessen.

He knew she was scared, he could see it in the way she moved. How her hands never stopped in a place for more than two seconds, how her leg shook lightly. He could see it in the way Kate stopped what she was doing for a few seconds every once in a while, just to take a deep breath, as if to calm herself. He could see it in the way her eyes were moving, restless and uncomfortable, as if she was wishing o fly out of that human form and turn into wind.

Sawyer had always known Kate was a free soul, that her will to be free was the true essence of her being. If it wasn't why had she ran away for so long? There was nothing Kate was more afraid of than being caged, confined to a small space, turned into pure matter, incapable of letting her soul wander around. And Sawyer knew that. She called it claustrophobia when she was confronted with this, but Sawyer knew it was so much more than that. So much deeper.

He got up from his seat and walked to Kate, whose distraction made her lure into a senseless state where she worked mechanically, without realizing what was going on around her. So when Sawyer placed her hand on her hip, she let out a small yelp, surprised by the sudden contact. Realizing it was Sawyer, though, she smiled and moved her head, giving him full access to her neck, which he was kissing.

"Hey Freckles?" he asked, between kisses. Kate smiled and closed her eyes, allowing her head to fall back onto his shoulder.

"Yeah."

Sawyer's tongue darted out as he kissed her neck once more, and it made a shiver run down her spine. Kate stopped the running water and grabbed the marble of the counter, holding on for balance. "You gonna tell me what's wrong with you?"

She smiled at his question. "Are you gonna seduce me into telling you?"

"Hell yeah." He whispered in her hear, and Kate turned around, facing him. She kissed his lips slowly, softly, lingering on his lower lip as he tried to playfully bite her.

"Nothing's wrong with me, Sawyer." She said, pulling his head back. In here eyes, there was a strength he had never seen, as if she was trying to conceal something with all of her force, all of her willpower. Sawyer was suddenly unnerved by that look, and pulled away softly.

"You're lying." Kate looked away, and then back at him.

"I'm not, Tex." Even though anyone else might have pegged Kate's reply as a honest one, Sawyer didn't. He knew he was lying, in the same way he knew he had a scar of an appendectomy on the right side of his stomach. It was something within himself, within the man he had become, and the way he had grown to love her, that gave him full knowledge of her senses, of her behaviour, of her inner self. Even though he thought he didn't understand Kate most of the time, he had some kind of sixth sense when it came to her, a clairvoyance that allowed him to know when she was lying, even if she was the most convincing person in the world.

"Why don't you tell me the truth and get it over with, Kate?" the use of her name rang a bell in her head. He only called her Kate when he was either really mad at her or really turned on by her. And somehow, she knew he wasn't turned on.

"I am telling you the truth. There's nothing wrong with me, I'm just tired!" Her voice came out so loud that it was nearly a scream. Sawyer turned around, kicking the wall as she turner her back on him as well, grabbing the marble fiercely.

Kate heard Sawyer stomp out of the house, into the lake, to meet Ella. She knew she was wrong for lying to him, but she also knew that he wouldn't rest until he found out who had made the call. And Kate didn't want to get him into any kind of trouble.

The metallic sound of the modified voice on the phone played around in her head again, as she finally let the news sink in. "_Kate Austen, I know you're alive, and I know where you are. It will not be long before the feds find out, you know? Especially with my help._" She replayed it time after time in her head, trying to find a clue of who it could be, who would know she was living in a small island in the coast of South Carolina, who would know so much about her. And especially, who would want to turn her in to the feds. She couldn't think of anybody, and that feeling was making her chest heavy, so heavy.

She had managed to avoid that kind of fear ever since she had moved away from Boston. Here, in a small Island in the south, it was virtually impossible for someone from her past life to find her. Nobody but Shannon and Christian had any idea of where she was, and she knew they wouldn't disclose it to anyone, which left her in the exact same point where she had begun. Nobody would fit the profile of the person who had called her.

The dread was back in force, and Kate suddenly found herself struggling for air as her chest started to get heavier. She knew it was the panic, she knew it was the fear taking over for her, but she didn't want to let it in. She she wished she could tell Sawyer, she wished this one was the kind of problem she could confide to him and trust him to keep it, to make a joke about it of even hug her tight if it were the case. She wished this was the kind of problem Sawyer could solve with a smile and a wink, as he solved nearly every worry in her mind. He had a way with life, a relaxed vision she wished she had. He was calmer than she was, and the life at the fishing village had turned him into someone even more relaxed. She wished she could be like that, patient, waiting for the waves to change and bring the good luck with them. Kate had never been good at waiting; she was even worse at accepting her fate, and that was something he had become better at with time.

She really wished she could tell him about the phone call, but she knew it was too soon. She knew he'd make a big deal about it, and she knew he'd go miles to find out who was messing with his family. That was exactly what he feared, that he might do something crazy in order to find out who was threatening Kate.

Kate sat down at the table as she saw Sawyer and Ella outside, with the sun setting in front of them. They were all she had, they were all she would ever have, and there was no worse thought in her head than the thought of losing one of them. Ella had always been the center of her world, and nobody would ever change that. she was the best thing she had made in her life, and watching her grow into a beautiful, sassy and intelligent young lady was priceless. She loved her daughter more than anything, and when she confronted herself with the who she loved more, if it was her daughter or her husband, she had to admit she loved them differently.

Kate loved Ella unconditionally. The girl could come home one day and say she was pregnant; Kate could watch her go down with drugs or other vices; she could do anything wrong a mother could think of and she would still love her as if she was a five year old girl. There was absolutely nothing Ella could do to make Kate stop loving her.

The way she loved Sawyer was more physical than the way she loved Ella. She felt like she was connected to him, not only by the love they had for each other (and yes, Kate had found the courage, within herself, to call it love, even though they rarely admit it or say it out loud), but also by a great amount of sheer understanding of each other's strengths and weaknesses. Kate knew Sawyer as deeply as she knew herself. And of course, there was the physical connection. They seemed to be linked by a sexually charged wire, that turned them on whenever the other was close. It wasn't something that they could control, it just happened. Sawyer thought Kate was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, and Kate's knees got weak whenever Sawyer approached her. It was inevitable.

As she watched the two of them outside, Kate thought of the people she could call for help. She could try and trust someone on the island, someone she had met here. She had an uncanny desire to trust Nikki with her past; something in the girl's attitude told her that her past wasn't so brilliant either; but Kate was still scared of the judgement.

She could call someone from Boston, someone from her previous life. Her thoughts went to Shannon, the person she missed the most. She hadn't spoken to her in a week, and she was sure her friend would listen. She wasn't sure, however, of how she would react to the threat. Probably, she'd stress out and demand to call Sawyer, asking him for help. And then Kate would have two hysterical people to deal with.

Christian. Christian was the perfect person to call. He was like a father to her, and had always looked out for her. Also, he didn't like Sawyer all that much, so he would never tell him about the threat. Yes, Christian was the man to call.

Kate walked through the kitchen to get hold of the portable house phone, but a thought stopped her midway. If the person knew where she lived, he could have tapped her phone line. Cell phones, however, were much harder to tap without being a federal agent, of being close to the person whose phone you want to take over.

As she took a look around the room, Kate spotted Sawyer's cell phone on the counter, and ran to it, quickly dialing the number. She waited for a few seconds, until she heard her father-in-law's voice on the other end of the line.

"Chris?" she asked, anxiously. "It's me. Kate."

"Kate? Is everything alright?" his voice was concerned. Kate smiled a little, trying to hide the nervousness even from herself.

"Yeah. Or not so much, but that's why I'm calling you." she wasn't sure of how to put it, of how to explain the phone call and the fear that had come with it. "I got a phone call earlier today."

"A phone call?" Kate heard a noise, a car door closing, and a sudden silence surrounded Christian.

"Yes. Distorted voice, claiming to know where I live. He called me Kate Austen, Chris. And he said that" Kate swallowed hard. It was definitely complicated to repeat those words. It was almost as if she was making them real now, inevitably real. "That he he'd found out where I was, and the feds would too, soon. And that he might help them out."

Christian was in silence for a moment, and Kate bit her nail nervously.

"What do I do, Chris?"

"Whose phone number is this?" he asked. Kate rolled her eyes slightly, wondering why he was asking that question at a time like that.

"It's Sawyer's cell phone. I used it because I thought they... he might have tapped my phone line."

"You did good, Kate." Christian paused for a moment. "What does him think of this?"

"I haven't told him. I don't want him to know." Kate could hear the smile on Christian's voice as he spoke after her.

"I don't think he should know either. He's a little bit... fiery when it comes to these things, isn't he?" Kate didn't like Christian's tone of voice. She knew he didn't agree with her choosing Sawyer over Jack, and in a way, he was in his right to think that his son was a better man. Hell, he could even blame Sawyer for the deaths of Jack and Margo. But Kate knew that deep down, he was satisfied with Kate and Ella's happiness, and it was all that mattered. "Well, here's what you're going to do."

------------------------

Sawyer decided to leave Ella outside and come inside. As usual, after a fight, he was regretting bursting out on Kate. He had a temper, and she was aware of that so she shouldn't try to pick a fight with him. But still, he knew it was his fault.

There was no use in pretending he was going to say he was sorry. He wasn't. They never said they were sorry, like they never said they loved each other. It was the kind of thing they didn't need to say, as it was implicit in their relationship. Sawyer knew that no matter how many picky fights they might have, they would always come back to each other a few hours later, if not a couple of minutes after the fight.

As Sawyer walked into the house, he heard Kate's voice on the phone. She was talking in a low tone, as if the matter was private and she didn't want anyone else to hear it. Sawyer stood by the door for a second, knowing that what he was doing was wrong, until he walked into the room.

"Yeah, okay. Bye." Kate said to the phone. Kate looked over at Sawyer and sent a cunning look in his direction, placing the phone on the table. "It was Chris. He wanted to know how Ella's doing."

Sawyer stood in the doorway, leaning against its frame and lifting one arm in order to balance himself. Kate stood by the table, placing both hands on the surface of the table and looking up at him with a tiny smile. Sawyer knew things still weren't clean but he needed to be okay with her, needed to know she was okay with him.

They stared at each other for a moment, from across the kitchen. It was like saying sorry with no words; Sawyer had the same constricted look on his face and Kate's eyes were serious and vulnerable. She wasn't vulnerable with anyone but him, and he took that as the most wonderful gift she could ever give him.

Kate broke the spell, walking up to him and leaning against the door frame as well. They were in front of each other, and Kate threw her hand at him, which he caught and held softly.

"You're an ass." She said with a smile. Sawyer looked around the kitchen and smiled, relieved. When he looked back at Kate, he had a playful glimpse in his eyes.

"You ain't exactly a lovebird either, shortcake." He said, flashing his dimples. With a deft pull, he dragged Kate's body up to his, and she let herself linger against him, putting her arms around his midsection. Sawyer's arms came up around her as well, pressing against her shoulder blades as they faded together, sighing into each other.

They were together for a couple of minutes, until Kate looked outside. "I better go check on Ella." She got up on her tiptoes and kissed him softly, leaving the room right after that.

Sawyer was left in the kitchen, and the presence of his cell phone on the table seemed to be calling him. He knew it was wrong, but he also had the feeling that Kate was lying about the call she had just made.

She'd said Christian had called her, right? Oh well, there would be no harm in checking that out then. Sawyer picked the phone up and checked the record of the calls. She had called him, not the other way around.

Sawyer's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a loud scream. It was Kate, calling him to the outside of the house, and her tone was no less than urgent. A misc of scenarios sprung to his mind as he walked towards the door. What if Ella had fallen to the water, what if she was drowning? What if she had managed to catch a fish?

"John Smith, we need ya here!" When he heard Ella's urgent voice and had the certainty that she wasn't anywhere near drowning, Sawyer found the force to urge his legs to move and run to the exit of the house, and then to the lake. He ran to the two females, who were dragging something out of the water. And then he realized.

It wasn't something, it was someone.

Sawyer rushed to get to his girls, helping them pull the man out of the water and laying him in the grass. The night was falling, but he could still see that he was breathing. They had found him clinging to a log, running down with the water from the lake, that eventually turned into a river.

He had long dark hair, and a beard. He smelled like alcohol, too; and there was no doubt that he was sleeping, Kate thought with a grin. He was drunk to the bone.

"We have to take him inside, he'll get hypo thermic during the night." She said. Sawyer looked at the man, kicking him lightly in the arm to see if he responded.

"The damn guy is drunk to his death, Freckles. You sure your old hubby wasn't enough of a drinker, you wanna adopt a new one?" Kate glared at Sawyer and looked down. He could spot a smile on her face, and thanked God for Ella not being around.

Ella was a bit down at the pier, catching something from the water. It seemed to be a backpack, probably belonging to the drunk guy. "We have to take him inside, Sawyer. He'll stay on the living room, and he'll probably sleep until morning anyway."

"It's a tad dangerous, Girl. You sure you wanna put the midget in risk?" Kate laughed at Sawyer's false concern.

"He will not be a danger until he wakes up tomorrow morning, I promise. He'll sleep through the night." Kate caught his legs and moved her head for Sawyer to pick his shoulders. They carried him inside the house, with Ella following them quickly, and placed him on the couch. Kate took off his shirt, under the stare of a nearly outraged Sawyer, who hated to see his woman undressing other men, and dressed him up in one of Sawyer's t-shirts and sweat pants. Leaving him in the couch, Kate got up and moved towards Ella, who was emptying the man's backpack onto the living room table.

The girl took the passport she found and opened it up.

"He's scottish." She paused for a moment, reading his name. "_Desmond David Hume_. What kind of a name is Desmond, anyway?"


	4. Chapter 4 Part I

_I am so terribly sorry for the delay in this update. I know I keep excusing myself with this, but you wouldn't believe how busy my life is right now. I am so, so sorry._

_I don't have a whole chapter because I didn't have time to write it, but I have the first half of chapter four. it's a tiny update, compared to the other ones, but it was the best I could do. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)_

_It'll be a while before the next update, again. I'm up to my neck until June 5, so don't expect much before that date! _

_Thank you so much for reading. If you review, you might just make me want to write more, and I might update earlier! yes, I'm a review whore. :D_

**Chapter Four**

There was something pulling her t-shirt. She felt the coldness hit her harshly as the covers were pulled back and her legs were exposed to the night's air. Something had to be wrong, Sawyer didn't do that. He usually came on to her beneath the sheets, his hands on her legs and stomach. No, this wasn't Sawyer. There was definitely something wrong.

"Come on!" Kate opened her eyes as she heard her daughter's voice, calling her frantically. Ella had her pajamas on, and her her was in a messy bun. She looked more and more like Kate everyday.

"Mom, wake up!" Ella's voice was excited and joyful, more awake than ever, it wasn't morning yet, but as Kate opened her eyes and glanced at the clock, she realized it was later than she'd thought. Listening to Sawyer's breathing sounds, she realized he was still sleeping.

"What?" Her eyes opened and she tried to focus on the girl again. She had a smile on her face, so her mother could see it was nothing serious, but her legs were pulled together, and she was engaging in a small dance Kate didn't really understand. "What happened, sweetie?"

"He's awake! That Desmond guy, he's awake!" Ella jumped a little, holding her legs together. "And I really gotta pee." Kate let her head fall back on the pillow, grunting as her daughter ran to her mother's bathroom and closed the door behind her. That was not happening. 4AM and the guy was already waking up. She had expected him to sleep longer, stay that way for longer. He was very drunk the night before. Unless hangover was already hitting hard, he had no reason to be out of his coma yet.

Kate heard the sound of the water in the sink and Ella came out of the bathroom quickly, using her pants as a towel for her wet hands. Kate propped herself up on her elbows and managed to sit up on the bed, patting lightly on Sawyer's arm.

"Sawyer, wake up." She said with a sleepy tone. Ella seemed to be the only one who was completely awake there: she was jumping around the bedroom, looking through the window and nudging her mother, forcing her to move with her. Realizing Sawyer wasn't anywhere near waking up, Ella decided to jump to the bed and shake her stepfather's arm.

"John Smith! We're being attacked! You have to rescue us!" Sawyer's eyes snapped open as he heard the girl's voice, propping himself up on his elbows in the same way Kate had, just a minute ago. When his eyes hit her small face and he saw her witty smile, he let himself fall back on the pillow, mimicking Kate's moves so little before.

"What now, midget?"

"He's awake! The Desmond guy is awake!" Ella said once again, excitedly. Sawyer looked at Kate, a confused look on his eyes.

"Who the hell is she talking about?" Kate rolled her eyes at him, throwing her legs out of the bed.

"The guy sleeping downstairs?" Kate got up and reached for her robe.

"We have a guy sleeping downstairs?" Sawyer's voice reached a peak, as if he was a schoolgirl, and when Kate turned his eyes to him, he showed off his dimples in a funny smile. Ella was also laughing, and Kate realized she was being blatantly mocked by the two of them. She stormed out of the room, still half-asleep, and went down the stairs, quickly followed by Ella and Sawyer, who seemed to be as awake as his girl now.

The three of them walked down the stairs step by step, as if they were ambushing the strange man. As they were halfway down, they heard a rambling noise, with the distinct sound of something breaking in the kitchen and Kate looked at Sawyer with an angry expression.

"If he broke my duck..." she said in the lowest voice possible. Sawyer and Ella shared a knowing look, and the girl placed her hands together in front of her chest, as if praying for that to happen.

The duck had been a reason for fights between the two sides of the family ever since Kate had brought it from a fair she had gone to in Virginia. The three of them had gone, because Ella loved farm fairs and Sawyer was thinking about buying a cow to put in their back yard. Kate had thought that was strange, but didn't question. There were things she couldn't understand about men, and she didn't bother looking into it.

They hadn't brought a cow home, but they had brought a duck. More specifically a clay duck, with it's butt up and the beak down, biting down on the earth. The position the animal was in was nothing but suggestive for Sawyer, but Kate seemed to have found a sense of empathy with the piece and was refusing to let them throw it to the garbage. Ever since that day, Ella and Sawyer had been secretly hoping for the darn thing to fall down and break. Sawyer had even "accidentally" nudged it out of the table, once, but the duck fell and didn't break, marking once again his invincibility against the laws of physics and apparently, Sawyer and Ella themselves.

Sawyer forced Kate and Ella to take another step down the stairs and walk down to the kitchen, where they stopped at the door. They were determined to stop at the door and just observe his behaviour, but Kate gave them away when she looked at the floor and saw the duck, laying on carpet, seemingly intact. There was a broken plate near the table, though. Her eyes widened and she brought her hands up to her chest, thankful, while her daughter and her John Smith looked at the man.

He was still wearing Sawyer's clothes, and turned around rapidly as he heard Kate's sigh, showing off his face, a mis of distress and pain. He was going through the cabinets like they were on fire, opening and closing doors quickly, allowing himself to peek inside. He looked back at Kate with squinting eyes.

"You don't happen to have any aspirin around, do you, woman?" his scottish accent was thick as it could be, and they could barely understand him. Ella, though, seemed to be out of the daze her parents were in, so she stepped forward, avoiding the shattered clay, and reached up to the medicine cabinet just above the fridge. She took out a bottle of Advil and gave it to the man, who thanked her with a nod, regarding the bottle closely. "This is not aspirin, goblin."

"It's_ Advil_. That's what my step dad takes for hangover, he says it hits fast." She explained, shrugging. "You were pretty drunk last night."

"Well thank you then, little lady." He took two a pill out of the bottle and threw it to his mouth, swallowing fast.

"You're welcome." Ella looked at the man while he took the pill and then placed her hands on his hips, mimicking a movement her mother made all the time. "Your name is Desmond, right?"

"Ye." He said, looking at her closely.

"Desmond David Hume." She said.

"Correct, too."

"What is the color of this fridge?" She asked, looking up at him and pointing at the fridge with her left hand.

Desmond looked puzzled. Looking at the fridge and back at the girl, answering with a glance at Sawyer and Kate, who seemed to be as puzzled as he was. "It's white, I think."

"Yes. What do cows drink?"

Desmond answered quickly, figuring this was an easy one. "Why, milk..."

"Wrong! They drink _water_. Nice try, scotch." Ella said gladly. Desmond looked at her with a defiant look, while she looked at him with a proud grin. Sawyer was also grinning, while Kate had her eyes locked on the duck.

"I don't think I like you, midget." Desmond said, a tiny smile on his face. He looked nice, not threatening at all. His hair was long and dark, but he had it tied on the back of his head. His beard was a bit too long, but his body was muscled and strong. Not as muscled as Sawyer, but still in good shape. His hands were big but soft, and Ella liked them as he placed one of them on her head softly.

Sawyer walked into the kitchen and up to Desmond, throwing his hand at him, for the other man to shake. Desmond smiled lightly and shook the other man's hand and presented himself. "John Smith, but everybody calls me Sawyer." He glanced at Ella. "That's my daughter Ella." Ella smiled when he referred at her as his daughter, but Sawyer was glancing back at Kate, who was running to the duck and picking it up from the floor, placing it back on the table. "And the duck's mother there is my wife, Kate."

Desmond turned to Kate. "Sorry 'bout the duck, sister." He said, and Kate smiled but placed her hand protectively on the duck's head. "It's quite hideous, though. Maybe I should have broken it."

Kate's face reddened, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Don't."

Desmond shared a comprehensive look with Sawyer and decided it was safer for him not to touch that matter again. Kate touched the duck's head once again before turning to the counter.

"I assume you're hungry. What don't we make some breakfast?" she asked, inciting hungry looks from all of the people present in the room. She moved to the fridge and took the eggs out, starting to break them into a bowl.

-------------------

The sun was already raising, so as Sawyer was getting Desmond something to wear, Kate and Ella set the table for breakfast. They were already dressed in sporty clothes, sweat pants and t-shirts, the usual Sunday morning clothes.

"Why do you think he's here, mom?" Ella asked, while Kate cut the bread distractedly.

"I don't know. He hasn't said anything about himself, just his name. We know he's scottish by his passport, that's all." Kate smiled "The milk joke was good. Good to know his reactions."

"I know. I did it just like you told me to."Ella and Kate shared a look of complicity and Kate placed her hand softly on her daughter's head. She moved away quickly. Placing the tray with cookies she had just taken out of the package in the oven.

------------------

Sawyer and Desmond entered the closet, and Sawyer picked three of his shirts, a dark blue one, a green one and a white one, along with another pair of trousers to give Desmond. The two men glanced at the underwear drawer for a second, and then back at each other, with a strange look.

"Don't worry 'bout that, brother. I'll find something." Sawyer smiled knowingly.

"Alrighty then." He closed the door behind him and looked back at the man who was following him. "Mind if I ask you something?"

"Be my guest."

"What brings you to South Carolina?" Desmond smiled for a second and stopped walking down the stairs.

"Actually, I don't know."

"You don't know? Like you're on a soul search or somethin'?" Sawyer's accent seemed to become thicker when he was in the company of this mysterious man, as if the fact that the two of them talked differently identified each one.

"No. I don't know at all. I woke up on a beach three weeks ago. All I know is that my name is Desmond David Hume, and that I'm scottish. I don't remember anything else."

Sawyer regarded him strangely. "You got amnesia?"

"Well, apparently. All I know about myself is related to what came in my backpack. I have a book, _Our Mutual Friend_ by Charles Dickens, which is closed and for some reason I can't open it. I can't bring myself to do it. I also have two pairs of underpants and a brochure, of a trip around the world. That's all I know." He numbered the facts with his fingers as he spoke.

"Hell... that's one big story, boy. You sure you don't remember a thing?"

"I woudn't be here if I did, brother." Sawyer believed him. There was something in his voice, in his manners. He seemed to be a good man, but his gestures showed off a sense of loss, as if he had nothing left. And if that amnesia story was true, he had lost everything. Sawyer felt a sudden empathy with the man standing in front of him. He knew a bit about loss, himself.

"Alrighty then. Let's go get somethin' in our stomachs then." Sawyer moved down to the kitchen and sat at the table, followed by Sawyer, who sat near Kate.

Desmond ate like he was a part of the family. Ella kept asking him questions, but Sawyer cut her off once of twice, and she realized she was being inappropriate. Kate, though, seemed to be more interested in the future.

"So what's your next step, Desmond?" she asked, biting a cookie.

"I have no idea. I don't exactly have somewhere to get to, so I guess I'll just wander for a while." Sawyer shared a knowing look with Kate, and she nodded at him.

"You could stay here with us for a few days, if you want to. We have a spare room." Desmond looked at Kate and smiled at her nod.

"Nah, I don't wanna bother you people." Kate spoke up.

"You're not bothering, not at all. The village is quite welcoming, and you could find a job easily." She said, and Ella followed her excitedly.

"Yes! You could work at the coffee shop, with my mom!" Kate smiled.

"It's an idea, yes. And eventually, you'd be able to afford you own little place in the village." Kate shrugged. "This is a really good place to live, Desmond." She paused and looked at Desmond in the eye. "Especially if you want to forget about the life you had before. It's a damn good place to start over."

Desmond looked at Kate and smiled. "I think I might consider it."


	5. Chapter 4 Part II

_Hey guys!_

_I owe you all an apology for the delay in the update in this story. It wasn't forgotten, no. Far away from that, actually. It was always on my mind, but wth all the college work I never got around to put something into paper. but haha, now I'm a graduate without a job for the summer (or for life, lol) with lots of time in her hands. So I promise you more regular updates, and a story to read. _

_Thank you all so much for reading._

**Chapter 4 – Part Two**

It looked like it was fate. That same afternoon, when the _Smiths_ had decided to go down to the village for a walk, Bridget Blake had come to greet them. She had news.

"Mike Lowell is moving to the continent." It was of use in the island that its inhabitants referred to the rest of the state as 'the continent'. It made them feel like of a different kind, like they were the royalty that was set apart from the rest of the South Carolina crowd. And technically, they were right. They were living on an island that was set miles off the continent, tiny and nearly unknown to tourists, which made it much more selective and comfortable. Kate and Sawyer had heard about it from a guy he had met on a bar, who worked in the witness protection program. The only thing Sawyer had to do was get him drunk enough to give him more information than he actually needed. After they were aware of the existence of the island, it became the perfect hiding place for them. They had moved there within a month.

"What about Kelly, is she going too?" the Lowell couple went to The Pearl a lot, and Kate knew both of them fairly well.

"Yeah. Mike got a job there, he's gonna work as a security guard on some facility…" Bridget looked both ways, as if to see if someone was listening, before lowering her voice "He told Blake it was Kelly who wanted to move there. Leave the ocean, you know? She thought it was too dangerous for him, didn't wanna spend her life waitin' for him to die."

Kate glanced at Sawyer and he caught her eye. They stared at each other for a moment, while Sawyer's eyes pleaded for Kate to forget that idea. They had stopped walking now, and sat down near the sand. Ella was already running around with the other village kids, playing hide and seek. Bridget kept talking.

"I mean, as if she didn't know it. But you could tell, you know? That she's not an ocean woman. That she's from the _land_…" she shot a glance at Kate, immediately regretting the tone of her last word. "I mean, you're different, Katie. You're both from the land. This isn't really home for you two; you can leave whenever you want to…"

"It's the closest thing to a home that we've ever had. But yes, I see what you mean." Kate answered patiently. She was used to being called a _land woman_, and didn't find it as bad as she had thought.

"She took _him_ away from us, you know? He was _one of us_, while she was a WP…" Bridget looked away, as if she had revealed a secret she wasn't authorized to share. Sawyer looked at her with a dimpled smile.

"Relax, sista'. Kelly being in the witness protection ain't no surprise at all…" now it was Kate's turn to look at him quickly.

"You knew she was in the witness protection?" he nodded, while she smacked her arm. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Ouch, woman! Watch that left of yours!" he sighed and looked away from the two women, who were regarding him curiously. "I didn't think you knew, and I didn't think she'd want you to."

"Oh, please." Bridget said, incredulously. "Everyone on this island knew she was in WPP. That's no excuse…"

Kate pointed at herself in disbelief. She was smiling and rolling her eyes at the same time, as if she was surprisingly amused. "You mean _I_ was the only one who didn't know she was a witness?"

"I guess you were, Freckles…" Sawyer said, earning himself another smack in the arm. As soon as Kate hit him, though, she looked away from him in a pensive manner, as if she was planning something. She looked quickly at Bridget.

"When is Mike moving?" Bridget seemed surprised by the question.

"A week, I think…"

"He's gonna leave his house empty, right? Has he got a buyer yet?" Bridget shook her head.

"No, he's decided to rent it. In case he ever wants to come back. I don't think he's rented it yet, though." Kate got up and smiled.

"I think I have someone to rent it for him." She looked at Sawyer with a girlish smile. "Can you tell Bridget about our visitor? I'll go get him a house." He smiled and nodded. They had been planning how to tell their friends about the amnesiac guy they were harbouring out of good will and nothing but a Kate's female intuition, but they had forgotten all about it when Bridget had found them. Sawyer was entitled to take care of the telling now, and he sure wasn't the nicest guy in the world to do it.

So, as Kate moved to the upper street, Sawyer started to tell Bridget the story of the previous night, and they way they had met Desmond, drunk and amnesiac. Sawyer told Bridget not only about the way Ella and Kate had immediately bonded with the guy, but also about how unsafe he had felt. Even though it looked like Sawyer was being nice to him, he didn't trust the man one bit. That was the reason they had closed up the house when they left, knowing that Desmond was taking a walk around the area. He didn't want the man alone in the house.

Bridget heard him carefully while Sawyer listed the bad things that Scottish guy could mean. For all he knew, he could be a thief. He could be a hit man, hired to kill someone on the WPP. He could be a pedofile. Bridget shivered a little at this last word, as if it was a plague. Sawyer had pretended to be nice towards the guy he didn't know at all, but wanted to keep him under his eye. In fact, he didn't look dangerous at all, and seemed to be a polite and calm man. But those were the worst, right?

Sawyer also told Bridget that they were planning on helping him rent a small house in the village and start working as a fisherman, like them, or maybe helping Kate out at the coffee shop.

"Well, we can't stop him if he wants to stay here, but I can tell Blake about this and he can keep an eye on the guy. Jim and my husband would take care of it if anything went wrong…

"Hell, I'd help them out." Sawyer sighed and looked at Ella, who was running in the sand. "I was gonna tell them myself, but with Kate's excitement… She's probably gonna come back with a damn furnished house and a previously cooked dinner for the Scottish." Bridget laughed at Sawyer's words.

"She's got a big heart, that girl." Bridget sighed in contentment, and they both shot a glance at the upper streets, hoping to see Kate running down the rocky path.

-----------------------------

Kate arrived at the Lowell's house and found Kelly in the front garden, sitting with a book. She looked at her through the short bush that surrounded the house and smiled, placing her chin on her hand.

"Knock knock." Kelly raised her eyes from the book and smiled when he eyes hit Kate.

"Kate, hi! Come on in!" she indicated the space between the bushes with a blue little fence. She walked in and looked at the small woman sitting on a wooden chair. Kelly was nothing like the other women on the island: she was small and fragile, her hair blonde and straight and her eyes brownish. She was slim and took care of her body in a way most women in the village thought was nothing but silly. Kate understood her, though; she knew she wasn't from the island. The world outside was a lot more judgemental when it came to a woman's image and Kelly was used to that world.

Kate walked into the garden and sat in the chair next to Kelly. The young woman placed her book on her lap and looked at her guest inquisitively. "What brings you here, Kate?"

Kate looked at her hands, suddenly embarrassed. She hadn't thought about what she was going to say once she got there. "I… I heard you and Mike were moving out."

"We are." She crossed her hands upon her book, elegantly. In another life, Kelly Lowell (or whatever her real name was) could have been a wealthy, well brought woman.

"Well, I was wondering if you were going to sell the house, or rent it…" Kelly smiled gently, and Kate felt better. If she wasn't such a nice person, Kate probably would've run away from that place already.

"We were thinking about renting it. You know, keep it, in case things don't go well in the main land." The Lowell woman looked at Kate curiously. "You're not thinking about leaving the creek, are you? It's such a lovely place!"

"Actually, it's not for me… it's for someone I just met…" Kate leaned back on the chair as she started to tell Kelly about the drunken Scottish man that had landed on her creek the previous night. She told him she was sure he was a good man, just a bit lost.

Kelly heard the story and nodded occasionally, playing a bit with the book in her hands. When Kate finished it, she smiled a bit. "I'll have to talk to Mike, but I don't see a reason why we wouldn't let him have the house. I guess I'll just have to meet him first."

Kate smiled happily, and she was about to open her mouth when she heard a voice behind her. "'Guess my wife's already been telling ya the whole caboodle about the Scottish."

Kelly smiled at Sawyer, who leant against the fence and staring at the two women. Kate lowered her eyes with a smile. He looked too hot, like he had been running in the beach. His t-shirt was wet, and Kate wasn't sure whether it was sweat or seawater, but it damn sure made him look incredibly sexy.

"She has. And I don't see a problem in it." Kelly smiled shyly, as if she had realized something. "I mean, you're okay with this, right?"

Sawyer smiled. "Yeah. Now worries there." He glanced at the end of the street and then at Kate. "We should get goin', Freckles, unless we wanna get there and find out the Scottish stole your mother's jewellery." Kelly looked slightly alarmed with Sawyer's words, and Kate glared at him.

"He's kidding." She assured as she moved out of the garden. Kelly held her book in front of her like a schoolgirl, and Kate felt a sudden wave of affection for that woman coming over her. It was like she was too small for that skin, lost in it. It was like the blonde hair falling on her shoulders was not hers, like it was part of a stronger woman. Kelly really wasn't cut out to be a seaman's wife, when even her aspect was of a fragile school girl. Her politeness didn't fit this life or what was expected of her, and for that Kate respected her. She was fragile and tiny and adorably kind, and she would never fit into that village, but she was a good person. "Thank you for the opportunity, Kelly. I think he'll really like it." The words were nearly caught on Kate's mouth, but only Sawyer was able to notice it. He pulled Kate's hand into his and was surprised when she let go of it quickly.

Kelly nodded and waved slightly as they moved away from her house, Kate walking angrily in front of an angrier Sawyer. As they were nearly reaching The Pearl, Sawyer pulled Kate by her arm and made her stop. "What? What now, Kate?"

The fact that he had called her Kate scared her for a moment, and took her a second to get back at herself. "Why did you have to say that? What if Kelly thinks he's a thief and doesn't want him in the house?"

"How do you know he's not?" Sawyer asked smugly, and Kate pulled herself away from his hand violently.

"That's not the point." Her voice was low and irate, and he took a step forward, getting closer to her again.

"You know what, freckles? That's _exactly_ the point." Kate took a step back, trying to put some distance between them, but he took another step forward, so he his mouth was nearly on her face. "You put a man you don't know into your house last night, and didn't even think he could be a thief faking amnesia to make us feel sorry for him."

Sawyer's words hit Kate like a punch. He was right.

"Hell, Kate, you didn't even worry about having him sleeping in the same house as your daughter! What if he walked into her room and…" he couldn't complete the sentence, so he looked away sheepishly. Kate looked up at him.

"I have this _feeling_…" her voice was lower now, calmer. "He's a good person, I know it." Sawyer looked at her in disbelief.

"Yeah, you thought _Jack_ was a good person too." Sawyer regretted those words as soon as they came out of his mouth, and Kate opened her mouth in disbelief. She would have said something back if Ella didn't arrive at their side in that moment, the bottom of her pants wet from running near the ocean and a giddy smile on her face. Bridget came with her, smiling too.

"Hey guys!" the woman said, and Sawyer looked at them as like nothing was happening, while Kate looked away.

"Ready to go home, midget?" he asked Ella.

"I gotta go get something I left in the Pearl, I'll be right back." Kate said slowly, and moved away from the three of them. Ella looked at her curiously.

"Mom, are you okay?" Kate looked back and smiled at her daughter.

"Yeah. Just got a headache, sweetie, that's all." She looked up at Bridget with a meaningful smile and moved away from them, towards the door of her coffee house. Bridget looked up at Sawyer.

"You talk about the guy?" she asked, and Sawyer nodded sadly.

"Yeah."

---------------------

Kate walked into the Pearl and closed the doors behind her, sitting quickly on one of the chairs. She took a deep breath, analysing the conversation she had just had with Sawyer. He was right. He was always right. She had been careless towards her daughter, by taking that man into her house without even asking for a name. She had allowed a stranger to sleep in her couch and to eat with them, without even thinking about Ella or Sawyer.

She used to be pretty good at judging people. She could read them well, know if they were up to something or not. Her gut was usually right about the people she met and related to, so she wasn't used to being questioned when it was about trusting someone or not. She had to, though. She knew better, she knew everything she had gone through and that she couldn't just go around trusting everyone with her house and the lives of its inhabitants.

It hurt her, though, that Sawyer had spoken to her like that. It hurt her that he had brought Jack back like that, it hurt her that he had spoken about her marriage to Jack as a mistake and as a misjudgement of character from Kate's side. It hadn't been a mistake; it had been her life for five years. And Sawyer had no right to talk about it like that. It hurt her, not only the fact that he thought that, but being mad at him, as well.

She hated being mad at Sawyer. It was like a part of her was separated form her body, like things would never be good again. She felt it physically, the coldness in the pit of her stomach, the dull headache creeping through the back of her head and making it buzz. Her hands shook, and she wasn't sure whether it was from the anger of the fight or the lack of him. And for a few moments, Kate lost certainty of her being together with Sawyer, Kate didn't just assume they were going to get together and have great make up sex that night. For a few moments, Kate was actually scared that they wouldn't go back to being Kate and Sawyer, the closest couple they had ever met. And that fear, that feeling of dread and panic made her bring her hands up to her face and cry.

She didn't let many tears fall, though. Soon after she allowed them to run to her face, her eyes caught the glimpse of something brown on the floor of the coffee shop, right near the door, and she took it in as a piece of paper. With the same feeling of dread and coldness, Kate got up from the chair and leaned onto the floor to catch the manila envelope, taking it in her hands and noticing it had no stamps or marks. Just a name: Kate Austen.

Kate felt her face go white and let herself fall on the chair with a thud. Her hands were shaking when she opened the envelope by its side, letting a small piece of white paper fall on the table. She had never been one to wait much, patience wasn't her biggest virtue. In that time, though, she wished it was, as she fumbled clumsily with the piece of paper, that she eventually opened and placed on the table.

It was handwritten, just a few words. Kate knew that handwriting from somewhere, but she couldn't quite place it. That doubt went right to the back of her mind, though, when she read the words in front of her.

_I am closer now. So are the feds. You'll get caught, eventually. You can't run forever. _

Kate placed her hand over her mouth and she stared at the message in disbelief. No. that wasn't true, someone was just trying to scare her, play with her mind and make her go crazy. That wasn't happening. That couldn't be happening, she wasn't going to cave and run away. She was standing her ground.

Getting up from the chair, Kate snuggled the paper back into the envelope and placed it in her counter drawer. She would call Christian later that day, but for now her emotions were focused on Sawyer and their fight. She would have to deal with the threats later.

Kate shed the tears she had in her face with the back of her hand and used her hands as a fan to bring color back to her cheeks. She walked out of the Pearl and met Sawyer and Ella, who were near the car. Bridget had already left. When Sawyer saw her, he opened the door and got in the car, while Ella waited for her mother to get closer. When she was just beside her, she took Kate's hand and held it tightly in hers for a moment, making Kate smile and touch her face lightly. They got in the car under the Sawyer's stare and drove home silently.


	6. Chapter 5

_Thank you all for the kind words and for the reviews!_

**Chapter 5**

They walked into the house as silently as they had driven there, and Ella went straight up to her room. Kate and Sawyer were left on the living room, looking at each other with no words. There were words to be spoken, but both of them knew the other wouldn't cave and say them. They both knew that fight would last for as long as they were silent, but neither one of them wanted to cave. So instead of talking to Sawyer, Kate walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, starting to choose what she would cook for dinner. Sawyer, on the other hand, proceeded to look for Desmond, in order to tell him they had found him a house.

Sawyer found Desmond sitting in the grass, near the creek. He had a far off expression on her face, and Sawyer could tell he didn't hear him approaching, so he cleared his throat to make his presence noticed. Desmond looked at him with a smile and motioned for Sawyer to sit beside him.

"Hey, brother." He greeted, his usual thick accent coming out.

"Hey, scotch." Sawyer sat beside him and sighed, looking at the creek. He placed his hands on his knees and smiled lightly as Desmond sighed too. "We should start a country band. Sighs and mellow sounds." He said mockingly.

"I hear ya, brother." Desmond laughed a little and then looked forward again. His hands were on the grass, and he was picking out small strands and breaking them distractedly between his fingers. "I think I had a wife."

Sawyer listened more closely. If Desmond was faking the amnesia, he would most certainly find it out with one of these conversations. "I thought you didn't remember."

"I don't." he affirmed, still regarding the creek. "I said I think I did. It's something I feel, you know? Like I'm missing a part of myself." Sawyer lowered his eyes with Desmond's words, as if he could feel it too. And he could. He felt like he was missing an arm or a leg, that's what being mad at Kate always made him feel.

"Yeah."

"It's like… I wake up and I throw my arm to the side hoping to find her." He smiled at his own words. "I'm constantly expecting someone, man, and it kills me. Because I can see her face but I don't know her name."

"You can see her face, though." Sawyer noticed it. Desmond really sounded honest, but being a conman himself he knew how _honest_ they could seem. "How come?"

"I get flashes sometimes. Of the past. I can never know what they're saying, but I see things." He sighed. "I saw her, a couple times. I saw her with me." His smile was sad and loving at the same time, and Sawyer felt coldness in the pit of his stomach, the same coldness Kate had felt not so long ago. "She's beautiful, brother. The most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

Sawyer scoffed and Desmond laughed. "No offence to your girl, mate, but I have the most beautiful woman in the world." Desmond threw his hand at him with a smile.

"Let's just agree to disagree, shall we?" Sawyer shook his hand with a smile. "You know the feeling though, don't you? I've seen you with your wife, you look very much in love."

"We are." Sawyer whispered.

"You must be. The way she looks at you, brother, you're lucky. She's crazy about you." Sawyer looked away shyly. The damn Scottish was accurate. He heard his laughter and smiled a bit. "And from where I see it, you're rather crazy about her as well."

"I am." It was all Sawyer could say. He had never found a way to put into words what he felt for Kate, and he thought it wasn't possible. Such a talkative man as himself, so eloquent when necessary, it was odd not being able to put a feeling into words. But he couldn't. He had tried, once, when Ella was little and asked him why they were together. He couldn't do it, though, so he told the girl they were together to hunt crocodiles. Later she had asked Kate where the crocodiles were, and that had become one of their inside jokes.

He couldn't put into words what he felt for Kate, but he could feel it pretty well. Like when he woke up at night with a nightmare, when the noise of a gunshot was still resounding in his ears, all he needed to do was pull her close to him and feel her scent against his chest. She was his saving grace.

When he was out in the ocean, he clang to the thought of her like it was his only exit, his only way out. He carried her picture with him, and glanced at it every once in a while just to let himself imagine the feeling of his hand running down the valley between her breasts, of his mouth dropping butterfly kisses on her neck and shoulders. He could feel her soft skin under his fingers and it gave him the strength to move on, to continue.

He knew exactly how it felt when he approached the small dock and saw her there, waiting for him. He knew it wasn't in her to wait for anything, but he knew she did it gladly for him. As soon as he docked, she'd throw herself at his arms and inhale the scent of his neck, while his hands would trace the lines of her back and shoulders, revelling on the feeling of having her against him. It was like a physical need; he couldn't picture his heart beating without her presence, without the certainty of her warmth. It was too painful for him to picture his life without her, without her hands and her face and her hair, and the way she kissed him; it was too hard to picture his life without her sleeping figure beside him in bed, without being able to wake up at night to kiss her neck and then go back to sleep; it would be too hard not to have that small gesture, her kisses on the palm of his hand whenever he placed it in the curve of her face.

The closest way Sawyer had to put it was that they were not two people, but one person. Taking them away from each other would be tearing a person apart and dividing it in two, making both parts torn and incomplete. They were one well oiled machine; they functioned together and only together. That loss of self and independence scared Sawyer for a while, but he was used to it now.

"We better go inside, no? Your wife must need help in the kitchen." Desmond's words dragged Sawyer out of his thoughts. He looked at the Scottish and got up on his feet, pulling the other man along with him.

"Yeah. Let's set the table." He said, motioning for Desmond to walk into the house with him.

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Ella and Desmond seemed to be getting along uncannily well, judging by the animated dinner. They had spent nearly an hour playing word and mind games with each other, and Kate was happy to see Ella entertained like that. Whenever she glanced at Sawyer, though, a cloud crossed her features and she felt down again. She couldn't bring herself to talk to him, not yet.

Sawyer ate silently, and staring at his own plate. He was still thinking about his life with Kate, but the anger was still building up inside him. She always thought she knew everybody, until he had to go and rescue her. And he went, gladly, but he didn't like to see Ella at risk.

After dinner, Ella and Desmond were left at the living room table playing one of Ella's board games; Kate was washing the dishes and Sawyer was sitting at the kitchen table, in silence. At first, Kate had been slightly bothered by his presence, but after a few minutes she realized he wasn't there for her, he was there because that was his favourite spot to just sit and think. He usually sat at the table and looked at the wood, moved his hands on it to feel the veins and the lumps. It helped him concentrate and think. Kate didn't want to interfere, so she just stood there, cleaning up the kitchen near him.

Sawyer was starting to think of how annoying it was not being able to talk to Kate. He wanted to apologize, he wanted to cave, but he knew he wouldn't. It wasn't in him to apologize and it wasn't in him to admit he was wrong.

The words got caught up in his throat as he raised his eyes to speak. He stared at her moving figure: her curly hair coming down her back, her green t-shirt and her brown pants; she moved so gracefully, stepping from one side of the kitchen to another, piling up the clean plates and cups, wiping them clean. She placed them up in the counter and cleaned the stove and the sink. Sawyer opened his mouth and the sound came out of it.

"Kate…" the word came out hoarse and rough. Kate heard it and stopped moving, not turning around. She knew it, she knew it was about to happen. She didn't dare to move a muscle while she waited for the words to come out, as if she was afraid of scaring him away, stopping him from saying something.

The tension was palpable, and it hurt more than Kate was prepared to. Those were the longest seconds of her life, until she found the will to move her arm, and then her body, and turned around to face his spot in the kitchen.

The chair was pulled back and his place was empty. He had left her, left her alone in the kitchen after saying her name. Kate threw the rag she had in her hand to the sink in anger and leaned onto the counter, opening the window in front of her to let the fresh air of the night in.

The tears started to fall short after the wind hit her face. Kate didn't move, she just let the weight of her body fall onto her stretched arms and the wind blow on her face as she closed her eyes and let the tears fall from her eyes, tracing a way from her cheeks to her neck and exposed chest. She let them fall and let herself fall on a cloud of semi consciousness that had her immune to the sounds and movements around her. All she could feel was the warmness of the tears contrasting with the coldness of the air and her soft sobs; she was dead to the world and to everything else.

Some images came to her mind, like she was in a dream. His hands, first of all, clenching something that looked very much like the skin of her hip. His face, his lips. His eyes and then her hands placed playfully over them, closing them. Her face over his, her arms around his neck. His breath on her, her mouth open in a silent scream as he bit her shoulder.

Kate cried even harder when she pictured his death, his body in a coffin, her despair. Kate moved her hand and hit it against the counter, in a vain hope that the pain from the hurt muscle would erase the pain from the pictures in her head. Why the hell was she imagining these things? He was alive, wasn't he? He was right there, outside her window, sitting on the porch. She could just go there and kiss him, throw herself against a wall with him and enjoy the matter of his body. It wouldn't solve anything, though, and the spoken word would be harder to deal with than the sheer physical need.

Kate wiped her tears once again and moved towards the porch. She spotted him sitting in the chair as soon as she came out, and he looked up at her. He had an apologetic expression on his face, but unfortunately that wasn't enough for Kate. She needed more, she needed the exact words coming out of his mouth, she needed to _be sure_, not to _recognize_.

They stared at each other for a little while, but Kate couldn't move. She looked at him in a plead, but he didn't say anything and she couldn't stand it anymore, so she moved away. Kate tore her eyes away from his and moved inside, leaning against the doorjamb for a second and then to the living room, where she encountered Desmond and Ella, playing.

"I'm going to bed." Kate said, slowly. Ella looked at her from behind her game cards.

"Already?" the girl asked, and Desmond looked at Kate kindly.

"Yeah, I have a headache…" Kate pointed at the door. "Sawyer's just here, whatever you need, okay?"

"Sure, Kate." Desmond said. Kate kissed her daughter's head and moved up the stairs to her bedroom. She was still in a semi-coma when she got in her pyjamas and lay back on the bed, her eyes on the ceiling, still full of tears. And the thought of that handwriting was still in the back of her head.

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She was still awake when he came to bed. Kate watched as he took his clothes off, piece by piece; she saw him get rid of his t-shirt in the dark, she saw him take his pants off. She saw him naked and getting into his old pyjama pants and t-shirt. She held her breath as he sat on the bed, his back facing her in the dark, and let his head fall on his hands.

He was so beautiful when he thought she wasn't seeing him. His movements were graceful, not calculated; the curve of his back in the faint moonlight was heavenly. If they weren't mad at each other, Kate would have propped herself up on her elbows and kissed along his spine, down until the point where his back met his pants. She would have wrapped her arms around his torso and kissed his neck. And eventually, he would have turned tables on her and pinned her down against the mattress, kissing her roughly.

That night, however, there was no loving roughness or soft tenderness. Kate turned over on the bed, her back to his back as she pretended to be asleep. They both knew she was lying and they accepted the lie as a part of the game. It wasn't always intelligible or fair, but it was the game they played and they had to stick with it.

Sawyer laid back and turned over, facing Kate's back. He looked at her for a long while, forcing the sexual thoughts out of his head as he figured her shape out in the moonlight, the curve of her hip more evident from the position, and a dozen times sexier. The minutes went by and he couldn't force himself to close his eyes and sleep. At one point, when he thought Kate had finally fallen asleep, he took his hand and lightly ran a finger down her spine. It was almost unnoticeable, like a butterfly, but she could feel him.

Sawyer ran that finger along the contour of her hip and thinking that she was asleep, allowed his hand to rest there, cradling the bone with his big, warm palm. Kate opened her eyes in the darkness, feeling the heat of his hand on her skin, but didn't move. She wouldn't be the one to cave. She remained motionless and soon they were both asleep, Sawyer's hand still lying softly on Kate's skin.

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It was dark and moist, like in a storm night. Kate felt herself go out in the street like she was waiting for a boat. And she was. Not feeling like herself, she saw her own figure running to the pier and lingering against it once she got there, bending over the fence to allow the sobs to take over.

She could see a boat in the horizon, and suddenly the rain hit harder, with a force she had never seen. Kate brought her hands up to her face to wipe it, but there was no point; it kept coming, like a shower and there was nothing she could do about it. Kate stopped seeing the boat along the sea line.

Suddenly, a wave came over the pier and nearly dragged her. With that wave came a body, and as he lay defeated in the old and dirty wood, Kate stood there motionless, just looking. It was like she was in another dimension, another life where a dead body laying next to her wasn't all that important. At least, until she saw who it was.

First, she spotted the blondish hair, sprawled in locks around the man's head. Then she noticed the hands and the arms. She brought her hands up to her mouth when she realized it was _him_, it was Sawyer. Kneeling near the body, she turned him around and cradled his head in her legs kissing him between the tears.

"Help! Somebody help please!" she could hear herself scream, and the despair was taking over her mind. She was alone now, all alone. She didn't have him, so she didn't have anyone else.

A pair of brown shoes, uncannily dry in the midst of all that water, approached the body, and Kate looked up slowly. She recognized the shoes, and then the blue denim pants. She recognized the blue shirt and as her eyes reached the man's face, her heart skipped a beat. It was Tom.

Kate looked down at Sawyer again, and found him motionless, lifeless. When she looked forward, there were two other men in front of her, and she shrieked when she saw who they were. Wayne and Jack. And a manila envelope, placed on the ground in front of the three of them.

"Katie, you have to let him go." Tom said in a kind voice. Kate clang fiercely to Sawyer's body, still in shock. The tears kept falling as she felt the weight of his body be lifted from her legs and felt a sudden warmth as a familiar pair of arms embraced her lovingly. Kate allowed herself to cry into those arms, letting go of all thought and reason. "Don't leave me, please. Stay with me."

"I'm right here, Freckles." Kate opened her eyes in the darkness of the room, only to find herself lost in Sawyer's arms, who was holding her with a worried expression. Kate looked up at him, and in the face of his wellness, she started to cry, dry sobs shaking her entire body while he held her. "I'm not going anywhere, shortcake." He said countless times, whispering soft comfort words into her ear.

They had both forgotten the fight. When Kate woke Sawyer up with her moans and her crying, he knew instinctively what to do. He took her small body and sat her up in his arms, cradling her like she was a baby. He knew she'd wake up eventually, but he'd rather have her wake up to his face than to the darkness of the bedroom. And he knew she would have done the same thing for him.

Kate's sobs died slowly as she clang to Sawyer's neck fiercely. She had caved, they both had, but she had done it unconsciously and in a very obvious way. That dream had been no more than the combination of that day's thoughts and it was enough to make her want to go back to him, to his presence.

As she calmed down, Sawyer softly caressed her face and temples, drawing the hair away from her face and placing soft kisses over her nose and forehead. Kate let herself go into him with a tiny smile on her face. "This doesn't mean you don't have to apologize, Sawyer." She said, feeling his smile against her skin.

"We'll see about that, Freckles." He whispered, and motioned to kiss her lips. She allowed him to place tender kissed on her lips before opening her mouth and taking his mouth in, kissing him hungrily, as if the world was about to end. And it was, in a way. For her, it had been over in that dream and had begun again when she woke up to his loving face.

So she allowed him to timidly explore her mouth with his tongue, she allowed him to place his hands softly under the fabric of her pyjamas and pull it off. She laid back on the bed when he went to lock the door to prevent unwanted entries. It was with a smile that she threw her arms at him when he approached the bed again, letting him fall on them and kissing his face softly, so softly that if he hadn't expected it he probably wouldn't have felt it. She let him expose her whole body to the night light and watched him do the same to himself; she smiled as he pulled her up to his lap and entered her, making her gasp. She allowed him to fall on her as he reached his peak, and kissed him tenderly before falling asleep. And she was surprised when, feeling herself fall asleep once more, she felt his mouth on her ear and heard his voice, rough and low.

"I'm sorry."

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Sawyer woke up late, but not to the point of missing Kate before she went to the Pearl. He opened his eyes in the early light and pulled the covers back, looking at the point in the bed where Kate had laid. She had slept deeply after the sex, and he was glad the fight was over. He still had the feeling, however, that the issue was unresolved, still lingering in the space between them. Sawyer had accused her of endangering her own daughter, and that wasn't something a mother would take lightly, especially Kate. And he wasn't even completely guilt-free, since he had helped bring Desmond home with Kate, and had done nothing to avoid it or to warn Kate.

He didn't bother to get dressed. Getting up from the bed wearing only his boxers and the old grey t-shirt, Sawyer brushed his teeth and went downstairs, entering the kitchen slowly.

Kate was alone in the room, moving from one side of it to another, cleaning up and putting things in their due places. She wasn't fully dressed yet, either, which made Sawyer glance at the clock they had above the stove and realize she was going to be late. She was wearing her pyjamas, a pair of stripy pants and a grey t-shirt just like his, only tighter.

Sawyer made some noise as he entered the kitchen, making her turn around, surprised, with one hand over her chest. "You scared me." She said, in a low tone. Sawyer smiled and kissed her cheek, leaning onto the counter right beside her. "Ella's gone to school, and Desmond decided to walk to the village, and then find out where Mike's house is.

"G'Morning to you too, Freckles." He said, and she replied with a shy smile. Pouring some coffee into a mug, she gave it to him and poured some for herself. Sawyer caught her intention right before she had time to say it. "We need to talk." He stated. Kate looked up at him and then away, as if she was afraid. He knew exactly what she meant with looks like these, she was about to open up for one of those rare times, and he had to take it while he could, otherwise he would miss a chance.

Kate sat at the table with the coffee mug in front of her, and Sawyer did the same. They sat in the corner, so they weren't in front of each other, but placed diagonally on the table. Kate clang fiercely to the mug, her eyes glued to the dark liquid inside. She was obviously getting ready to talk, like it was a ceremonial, and Sawyer could do no more than sitting there and waiting for her to talk. When she finally did it, he took a deep breath, relieved.

"I…" She was silent for a second, as if she was indecisive on whether to continue or not. "I was like Desmond, once. I had no place, no home. The only exception is that I had my memory and sometimes I wished I didn't. But I was like him, homeless." She clang to the mug more fiercely, and Sawyer fought the impulse to drive his hand across the table to hold hers. "I wished, back then, for someone who would help me as much as we helped Desmond, just by taking him out of that water. And Christian did it for me."

"So, you bringing the Scotsman into this house was some kind of freakin' pay it forward?" Sawyer's voice was still low, but Kate's eyes widened.

"In a way, yes." She affirmed. "You're right, though, I didn't think about the risks. You were right to tell me." Sawyer's hand moved to hers, finally, and she didn't move. She allowed him to have his hand over hers and sighed deeply. "I apologize for taking him in, but I needed to you apologize for talking to me like that. And you did." Kate smiled, but Sawyer could see the tears through her eyes. "It's so damn hard for me, to be mad at you. But I couldn't say anything, you know? I wanted to talk so badly, and when you called me here, I froze. I wanted to talk to you so badly, and you left." The tears fell from her eyes, two at each time, and she used her hand to wipe them off.

"Kate…"

"You can't leave me like that again, Sawyer, you can't make me feel like that, because I can't… It's horrible, and I can't feel like that again, I just can't." Sawyer moved towards her and wiped her cheek with his thumb.

"I know, Freckles. But I can't promise that, I can't say it won't happen again." The two of them smiled at each other. "'Cause you know what, it's us, and we won't even get along damn perfectly. But we're still here, aren't we?"

Kate nodded and kissed the palm of his hand. "Yeah." She shrugged. "Can you at least promise me you'll talk to me next time?"

"I can promise to try." He said with a dimpled smile. "That good for you?"

Kate smiled coyly. "Yes." She leaned forward and kissed Sawyer's mouth, lingering there a little bit more than necessary. Sawyer took her in his arms and made her sit on his legs, pulling her up against him and kissing her again and again, until she convinced him to go upstairs and take a shower with her. Nikki was opening the Pearl that day, so there was no rush to get back to reality.

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Sawyer was still in the shower, so Kate took his cell phone again. Dialling the number she knew so well, Kate waited for the sound of someone picking up on the other side of the line, while her hair, soaking wet, dripped onto the wooden floor. When the voice on the other side of the line finally emerged, Kate sighed in relief.

"Hello." The manly voice sounded quick and busy.

"Chris, it's Kate. It happened again." Kate heard a sudden silence on the other side of the line, and a perplex lack of words. "A manila envelope with a note inside, saying he's close to me. And the worse is that I know the handwriting, I just can't place it!" she sighed in annoyance, and Christian took that as an opportunity to speak.

"Okay, calm down. It's probably someone just messing with you. Or it might not even be with you, but with someone else, didn't you say that island is full of WPPs?" Kate sighed.

"The envelope said Kate Austen. It's about me." She said coldly, and Christian sighed.

"Let me know if you get something else. I'll be working on that from this end, but for Christ's sake, don't let that husband of yours know about this."

"Okay. Call me if you have anything, okay?" she asked before hanging up. Kate placed the cell phone where she'd found it and moved back towards the bathroom, where a wet, steamy Sawyer waited for her.


End file.
